


MISTORIC 
NEWARK 




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HISTORIC 

ACollection of the Facts (S" Traditions 

a/^oi/t the Most Interesting Sites 

Streets and Buildings 

of the City 




Illustrated by Reproductions 

of Rare Prints ^ old 

Photographs 



Printed For The 
FIDELITY. TRUST COMPANY 



i^etoarfe. §.3, 
1916 



,A/6 r^^' 



Copyright, 19 i6 

BY THE 

FIDELITY TRUST COMPANY 
Newark, NJ. 



The vignette on the 
title-page is from a photo- 
graph of the Bruen tea-kettle, said 
to be the first used in Newark. The 
ornaments on either side of the Foreword are 
reproductions of the door of the old Court House which 
long stood at the head of Market Street and was noted for its 
Egyptian style of architecture. The headpiece on 
page one was drawn from a photograph of 
the General Philip Kearny homestead, 
and the tailpiece is a reproduction 
of the summer house 
of Cockloft Hall 



Compiled, Written and Printed 

BY direction of THE 

Walton Advertising 13 Printing Company 
Boston, Mass. 



/ 



JUN -7 1916 
©CI.A431394 





FOREWORD 



THE FIDELITY TRUST COMPANY takes pleasure in 
presenting to its patrons and friends, in commemoration of 
the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement 
of the city, this brief account of some of the historic phases 
through which Newark has passed. As one might wander with an 
antiquarian along the historic streets of Boston or Philadelphia, stop- 
ping here and there to learn the story of some old building or interest- 
ing site, so this book will take the reader to the interesting places of 
Newark, and relate the facts and romantic traditions which time has 
wreathed about the old buildings and the older streets of "Ye Towne 
on ye Pesayak." 

Lack of space compels the omission of some details which can be 
found in fuller histories, but the compiler hopes that this small book 
contains the most interesting facts of Revolutionary and Colonial 
times, and that it is as accurate as varying authorities and the 
memories of those who have related the traditions allow. Every 
effort has been made to verify the facts and traditions herein, 
wherever it has been possible. Old books that throw light on inter- 
esting points have been freely consulted, many colonial and early 
American newspapers have been scanned, and a number of surviving 
members of the representative families, who knew of facts or tradi- 
tions passed down from ancestors who played leading roles in Newark's 
most stirring days, have been interviewed. And so this book has 
come into being, — an epitome which deals largely with the early days 
of the city, because the early days are those which are the most inter- 
esting and about which the least is known. 

The Fidelity Trust Company, which publishes this volume, hopes 
that it will be interesting to all residents and former residents of the 
city, that the picture of the past here presented may incite to higher 
civic endeavor the Newarkers of to-day, and that thus the city may 
attain to higher civic things. It is fitting that those who have assisted 
by suggestion or information should here have their courtesy and their 
service acknowledged. It is with gratitude, therefore, that we ac- 
knowledge our indebtedness to the following: Dr. William S. Disbrow, 
Edward Rankin, Mrs. Sydney N. Ogden, Miss Maud E. Johnson, Miss 
A. M. G. Crane, John A. Gilford, William H. Broadwell, Miss Sarah F. 
Condict, the Rev. G. Mercer Johnston, Madison Ailing, Miss Mary 
Camp, Miss L. G. van Roden, Wilson Farrand, William Pierson Field, 
Robert M. Lawrence, C. G. Hine, Mrs. Neilson Abeel, Miss Mary C. 
Johnson, Thomas A. Barrett of the Orange Judd Company, Miss 
Frances A. Depue, Thomas V. Johnson, Albert Matthews, H. G. 
Lemassena, John D. Neefus, Clarence Willis Ailing, Charles Freeman, 
Clarence F. Brigham, New York Times, Charles L. Stasse, John Deevy, 
Frank John Urquhart, Edward H. Daly, the New Jersey Historical 



FOREWORD 



Society, the Newark Free Public Library, the Boston PubHc Library, 
the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Boston Athenaeum, the New 
England Historic Genealogical Society, the American Historic Society 
(Worcester, Mass.), and the New York Public Library. 

The books and newspapers consulted were as follows: "Historical 
Collections of the State of New Jersey," John W. Barber; "New 
Jersey as the Colony and as the State," Francis Bazley Lee; "The 
History of New Jersey," W. H. Carpenter; "History of Newark," 
Joseph Atkinson; "History of Newark," Frank J. Urquhart; "First 
Church in Newark," Jonathan F. Stearns; Collections, Archives, 
and Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society; "History 
and Genealogical Record of the Alling-Allens of New Haven," com- 
piled by George P. Allen; "Newark," Martha Lamb, in Harper^ s 
Magazine, Vol. 53; "Woodside," C. G. Hine; "Historic Houses of 
New Jersey," W. Jay A4ills; "Essex County, New Jersey," Peter J. 
Leary; "Life and \^^ritings of Frank Forester," David W.Judd; "Rec- 
ords of the Towne of Newark"; Salmagundi, Washington Irving; 
"Patriotic Poems of New Jersey," William C. Armstrong; "General 
History of the Burr Family," Charles Burr Todd; "Literary Rambles 
at Home and Abroad," Theodore F. Wolfe; Centifiel of Freedom; 
Newark Daily Advertiser; "The Spirit of '76"; Northern Monthly 
Magazine; Newark Evening Nezvs; and the Sunday Call. 

In concluding this foreword, the Fidelity Trust Company of Newark, 
New Jersey, desires to call attention to its origin and growth and to 
the facilities that it offers to those who require banking or general 
fiduciary relations. 

Organized twenty-nine years ago the Fidelity Trust Company is 
now the largest institution of its kind in the entire state. It is also 
one of the strongest banks in the country. Starting with a capital 
of $200,000, it now has a capital, surplus and undivided profits of 
more than $6,000,000, resources of nearly $30,000,000, and deposits 
aggregating more than $20,000,000. 

Its extraordinary growth has been due largely to public confidence. 
That confidence is founded on the unquestioned integrity and ability 
of the company's directors and officers and, more particularly, upon 
the institution's admittedly excellent service and its conservatively 
progressive management. Its directors are well-known, distinguished 
men who are prominently identified with large enterprises; its officers 
are highly regarded, experienced financiers, and its department heads 
are specialists who supervise the work of the company's clerical force, 
which numbers nearly two hundred men and women. 

Occupying the entire ground floor, the ninth and eighth floors and 
part of the third floor of the main Prudential Building, the company, 
in addition to a Commercial Banking Department in which two 
per cent, interest is paid on check accounts of $1,000 or more, has a 
Savings Department which pays four per cent, interest on balances 
between $5 and $1,000, and three and one-half per cent, interest on 
all sums over that amount. It also conducts a well-equipped Bond 
Department for the purchase and sale of Public Service Corporation 
stock and bonds and other securities, and a Mortgage Department 



FOREWORD 



which loans money to home-builders and home-buyers in Essex and 
Union Counties and in parts of Hudson and Bergen Counties. This 
department also sells desirable real estate mortgages. The company's 
widely known Title Department insures titles to real estate any- 
where in New Jersey, and its Safe Deposit Department has the 
largest and best equipped vaults in New Jersey. Its Trust Depart- 
ment draws wills and acts as executor, administrator and trustee. 
It also serves as registrar of securities and under its charter acts in 
many other fiduciary capacities. It takes entire charge of real estate 
and personal property. It serves as guardian of minors and acts as 
assignee or receiver under personal or court appointment. 

The experience of its directors and officers in the business world 
guarantees to its customers sound advice and efficient and economical 
service, not only in matters pertaining to banking, but in a wide 
variety of other business affairs. If, to the reader of this book, the 
institution can in any way be of the slightest service consistent with 
good banking, it asks that it be given an opportunity to demonstrate 
its usefulness. 

Its present directors are: Aaron Adams, Frank T. Allen, Henry 
M. Doremius, Frederick W. Egner, John C. Eisele, Louis Hood, 
Henry M. Keasbey, John L. Kuser, Thomas N. McCarter, Uzal H. 
AlcCarter, Edward A. Pruden, P. Sanford Ross, William Scheerer, 
Jerome Taylor, Edgar B. Ward, William J. Wilson, Theodore M. 
Woodland, Archibald M. Woodruff, and C. Edwin Young. 

The officers of the company are: Uzal H. McCarter, President; 
Frederick W. Egner, \'ice-President; Jerome Taylor, Vice-President; 
Edward A. Pruden, Vice-President & Trust Officer; Frank T. Allen, 
Vice President & Publicity Manager; Louis Hood, General Counsel; 
Paul C. Downing, Treasurer; James H. Shackleton, Secretary; 
Henry Schneider, Assistant Secretary-Treasurer; Edward W. Camp- 
bell, Assistant Secretary-Treasurer; Clarence G. Appleton, Comp- 
troller; Charles G. Titsworth, Title Officer; Simon P. Northrup, 
Assistant Title Officer; Francis Lafferty, Solicitor; Theodore Hamp- 
son. Assistant Trust Officer; Herbert R. Jacobus, Assistant Trust 
Officer; Edward E. Felsberg, Superintendent of \'aults. 




y/ 




From an old lithograph owned by the New Jersey Historical Society 

Explanation oj figures 

I Mulberry Street. 2 Market Street. 3 Jas. Nutman. 4 Capt. Wheeler. 5 Stephen 
Sayre. 6 Tenement, Stewart. 7 John Poinier. 8 Thomas Bruen. 9 Ashton House. 
ID Benjn Munn. II John Poinier. 12 John Bruen. 13 Durand Coe & C. 14 Ichd 
Carman. 15 Passaic River. 16 Commercial Dock. 17 Tenements, Store Houses. 
18 Babcock House. 19 Isaac Nutman. 20 Gabriel Bruen. 21 Thomas Richards. 
22 McDonald. 23 — ■ — — . 24 James Tichenor. 25 James Tichenor. 26 Tenements. 
27 Tenements. 28 David D. Crane. 29 Abby Crane. 30 Aaron Harrison. 31 Baldwin 
House. 32 Nixon House. 33 Sally Crane. 34 John Morris. 35 Longworth, Jabez 
Rogers. 36 Jabez Cook. 37 Old Road to Paules Hook. 38 Tenement House. 








YE TOWNE ON YE 
PESAYAK 

FTER long days on rough waters thirty Connecticut 
families sailed up "ye Pesayak river" in the month of 
May, 1666. Like many other settlers in other colonies, 
they sought civil and religious liberty. This, they knew, 
would be theirs when they had reared their homes in 
the wilderness which they approached, where then wolves and bears 
ranged and where Indian trails were the only highways. Captain 
Robert Treat may have stood that May day in the bow of his fragile 
craft and scanned the Jersey shores for a favorable landing-place. 
Josiah Ward may have drawn nearer to the side of Elizabeth Swaine, 
his affianced bride, and whispered of the house he would build in the 
Jersey wilderness. Beautiful Elizabeth Swaine of nineteen summers, 
as she listened, may have gazed into the clear waters of the rip- 
pling "Pesayak," and afterward raised her eyes to the swaying 
tree-tops bending over the land where her new wild home was to be. 
There is a story, told and retold so many times it has become tra- 
ditional, that this Elizabeth Swaine was the first of the party to set 
foot on Jersey soil, — that she was gallantly assisted to shore by her 
betrothed. 

The little band, directed by Robert Treat, gathered that May day 
with every intention and favorable prospect of setting at once to 
work in the laying out of land which had been granted them by Philip 
Carteret. Whatever progress, however, they may have made was 
peremptorily stopped by the appearance of Hackensack Indians, 
who virtually said: — - 

"You trespass on our land. These shores belong to us. From the 
Pesayak to Watchung they are ours. In the forests are our game; 
in the streams, our fish. Our feet for untold moons have trod yonder 
trails that you behold. No one shall sell this land, the domain of 
the Hackensacks." 

Negotiations were opened with the Indians, and a title purchased 
from them July 11, 1667. Territory extending from the summit of 
Watchung Alountain, now Orange Mountain, "about seven or eight 
miles from Pesayak Towne," was purchased for "fifty double hands of 
powder, one hundred barrs of lead, twenty Axes, twenty Coates, ten 
Guns, twenty pistolls, ten kettles, ten Swords, four blankets, four barrells 
of beere, ten paire of breeches, fifty knives, twenty bowes, eight hundred 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



and fifty fathem of wampem, two Ankors of Licquers, or something equiv- 
alent and three troopers Coates." Tradition says that an illuminated 
miniature of an English queen played an important part in the pur- 
chase. This miniature was sent by the daughter of Micah Tompkins, 
one of the first settlers, to the squaw of an Indian chief, and it influ- 
enced Perro, the Indian, to transfer his land, so rich in game, to the 
settlers. Other tracts were later bought by the settlers from the 
Indians. One of these, owned by Winnocksop and Shenoctos, ran 
west to the foot of the Watchung Mountain. The Indian sold this 
for "two guns, three coats, and thirteen kans of rum." 



Wapamuk, 

Harish, 

Captamin, 

Mamustome, 

Peter, 



""V.x^^ J^is marke. WamesaNE, 'T*^ his marke. 

^'V.. his marke. Wekaprokikan, ^^ his marke. 
his marke. Cacanakrue, f J^ his 




marke. 
Sessom, M^ his marke. 

Perawae, Sc^ ^'^ marke. 

SIGNATURES OF INDIAN GRANTORS OF NEWARK 



>his marke. 
^*0 his marke. 



In the centre of the town two main streets. Broad and Market, 
crossing each other at right angles, were laid out. It will probably 
never be known why the early settlers of Newark laid out their 
"towne" on four corners, but it is evident that this arrangement was 
carefully planned. Broad Street was probably an old Indian trail, 
and Alarket Street may have been convenient because a merry little 
brook, it is said, dashed over pebbles in its very centre. The land 
was distributed, each man taking by lot six acres as a homestead. 
First, however, the settlers "freely gave way that Captain Robert 
Treat should choose his lots" before the others had theirs. Eight 
acres were given him, on a part of which now stands the First Presby- 
terian Church on Broad Street. A military ground was set aside, 
a market-place, a watering-place for cattle, and the burying-ground, 
at the gates of which, years later, when the weather was fine, the 
town-meetings were held. 

"Meeting House Lots" or "Captain Treat's Recompense" was at 
the southwest corner of Broad and Market Streets. It was occupied 
by and still belongs to the First Presbyterian Church. An ancient 
leasehold requirement is to the effect "that all shades must be drawn 
on the Sabbath." During the Revolution the Ailing house at the 
northwest side of the "Four Corners" was well known, while early 
in the nineteenth century, when fox-hunts were followed throughout 
Newark, Archer Gifi^ord's Tavern at the northeast side of the "Four 
Corners" was famed throughout the States. 

As soon as the settlers arrived, log huts were built, the first church 
was erected, and the Rev. Abraham Pierson chosen for minister. It 
was at first proposed to name the town Milford, after the town in 
Connecticut from which some of the settlers came; but finally it 







TOWN LOTS OF THE FIRST RESIDENTS 

Explanation. Northeast Section: A, Deacon Lawrence Ward; 
B, John Catlin (i); C, Samuel Kitchell; D, Josiah Ward; E, Tohn y^ 
Rogers ; F, Robert Kitchell; G, Jeremiah Pecke; //, Obadiah Bruen; 
/, The Seaman's Lot (2); /, Thomas Richards; K, John Harrison; 
L, Aaron Blatchly; A/, Stephen Davis; N, Samuel Plum; 0, John Crane; 
P, The Boatman's Lot (3); Q, Robert Lymon; R, John Davis. 

Northwest Section: y/, Lieutenant Samuel Swaine; 5, Sergeant Richard 
Harrison; C, Edward Ball; D, John Morris, in 1688; E, John Ward, Sr.; 
F, Matthew Camfield; G, Abraham Pierson, Jr.; H, Jasper Crane; 
/, Thomas Pierson, Sr.; /, Benjamin Baldwin; K, Thomas Huntington; 
L, Alexander Munrow; M, The Elder's Lot (4); N, John Ward, Jr., 
the turner; 0, Deacon Richard Laurence; P, Delivered Crane; Q, Hans 
Albers; R, Samuel Rose; S, The Miller's Lot (5); 7", Samuel Dod; U, 
Daniel Dod; V, The Corn Mill. 

Southeast Section: y/, Captain Robert Treat (6); B, Abraham Pierson, 
Sr. ; C, Robert Denison; D, Thomas Johnson; E, George Dav; F, Na- 
thaniel Wheeler; G, Joseph Riggs; H, William Camp; /, Martin 
Tichenor; /, Stephen Freeman; K, John Curtis (7); L, John Baldwin, 
Sr.; A/, Thomas Staples; N, John Baldwin, Jr.; 0, Deacon Michael 
Tompkins; P, Jonathan Tomkins; 0, Ephraim Pennington; R, Seth 
Tomkins; S, The Tailor's Lot (8); T, Thomas Pierson, Jr.; U, Samuel 
Harrison; V, John Browne, Jr.; JV, Edward Riggs; A', Hugh Roberts. 

Southwest Section: A, The Meeting-house (9); B, Captain Treat's 
extra (10); C, John Johnson; /), The Parsonage Home Lot (11); £, John 
Browne, Sr.; F, Stephen Bond; G, Zachariah Burwell; H, Ephraim 
Burwcll; /, Thomas Ludington; /, John Brooks; K, Thomas Lyon; 
L, Joseph Johnson; ^1/, John Treat; N, John Gregory (12); 0, Henry 
Lyon; P, Joseph Walters; Q, Samuel Camfield; R, Robert Dalglish 
(or Douglas); S, Francis Linle (or Lindsley); T, Matthew Williams (13); 
U, Walter's second division. 

The map was made by Samuel II. Conger. 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



was called Newark after Newark in England, where Mr. Pierson 
preached before he came to America. Wolves and bears prowled 
along the roads by night, and often by day. Soon after the settle- 
ment there was a premium offered for killing them. A grown wolf 
brought from fifteen to twenty shillings; and a bear cub, five shillings. 
It is said that Sergeant Riggs was mortally afraid of wolves and 
bears, and that his possessions included a "wolf-pit." 

The growth of the community was rapid. Other settlers came. 
The courage of these early Newarkers was great, and has inspired 
chapters of Jersey history. Little incidents crept in, enlivening the 
daily labor of the pioneers; for everybody in the settlement had a 
common public work to do. No drones were in the hive of the town 
on the Pesayak. No admonition, however, of Captain Treat has ever 
been recorded, — that those who "wouldn't work shouldn't eat." 
Among these incidents, tucked away in a traditional pigeonhole, is 
one concerning Robert Treat, of distinctly John Alden flavor. He 
loved Jane Tapp, daughter of one of the "seven pillars" of the church 
at Milford, Connecticut. Treat was a bashful wooer, though he 
seems to have summoned sufficient courage to take the lady on his 
knee, where he danced her merrily. Still, he didn't propose marriage; 
and it is related that the fair Jane brought him promptly then and 
there to the point by expostulating, "Robert, bestill that: I had 
rather be Treatted than trotted!" 

Though a bashful wooer. Captain Treat was a brave leader, and 
the activity of the colony increased still more when the first inn 
was opened. Henry Lyon was keeper, and he was cautioned against 
entertaining strangers indiscriminately. A cattle-pound was opened 
when the colony was three years young. In 1675 the church was 
prepared as a place of refuge and fortified, lest the Hackensacks, 
continuing the terror other Indian tribes were causing through New 
England, should fall upon Newark. Captain Swaine, who knew 
well what an attack from the redmen meant, as he had seen his own 
sister carried off^ by a Pequot chief in Connecticut some years before, 
was appointed to aid in arrangements for fortifying the town. The 
meeting-house was guarded by sentinels, the church-goers carried 
arms, and every precaution was taken in case the Hackensacks should 
surprise the town. They never came. In all the history of Newark 
no trouble occurred between the whites and the Indians. 

After the excellent cider of Newark had been tasted by Governor 
Carteret and pronounced good, after the first shoe-shop had been 
established, the first saw-mill and the first tannery. Colonel Josiah 
Ogden, pillar of the First Church, man of will, wealth, and wisdom, 
broke the Sabbath by harvesting his wheat. The dissension which 
arose in the First Church was long and bitter, and resulted, as we shall 
learn, in the establishment of Trinity Church. 

Later came Newark's war against rents, the preaching of White- 
field to crowds that came from far and near, and the first public hang- 
ing. About half a century later the Revolutionary War broke out. 
The shot that was heard around the world echoed in Newark, and 
enthusiastic Patriots answered its call. Streets resounded with the 




b ,urt..,^ST.ISDUTril 
LOOKING SOUTH FROM MARKET STREET IN 1854 




NORTH ON BROAD STREET FROM THE CORNER OF MARKET STREET 

IN 1854 
From prints by Smith, Fern & Co. Owned by the New Jersey I^istorical Society 







MArlKLT STRELi 



A VIEW FROM BROAD STREET LOOKING WEST IN 1854 




MARKET STREET^ EAST) 

JJEV/Afj:, K.J. 

LOOKING EAST FROM BROAD STREET IN 1854 

From prints published by Smith, Fern & Co. in the possession of the New Jersey Historical 

Society 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



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Announcement of the opening of the steam passenger and freight service between Newark and 
New York. Established in 1849 by Thomas V. Johnson & Co. 

tread of Jersey Blues. Red-coated Hessians stalked like wolves from 
homestead to homestead. General Washington came. When the 
war ended, Newark resumed the busy tenor of its life. Then came 
the famous days of Archer Gilford's Tavern, — days of picturesque 
coaches, fair ladies, and lively fox-hunts over the hills. Lafayette, 
twenty years later, rode through garlanded streets, and dined with 
Elias Boudinot. Newark, a dozen years after the noble Frenchman 
visited the town in 1824, became a city, with William Halsey first 
mayor. Since this new epoch in her history she has attracted within her 
borders industry after industry until she stands eleventh in value of 
products annually produced, with over 3,000 industrial concerns using 
steam or electric power, each employing ten or more hands. There 
is an equal number of smaller manufacturing plants not using steam 
power. These industries represent over 250 distinct lines. The value 
of the output for 191 5 it is estimated will not fall below $275,000,000. 
As Newark has advanced in size and in industrial and social impor- 
tance, the Fidelity Trust Company, ably, wisely and progressively 
managed, has kept pace with it. Often, in fact, it is conceded to 
have not only paved the way for progress, but to have been the actual 
leader in the march toward bigger and better things, and to-day it is 
admittedly the largest institution of its kind in the State of New 
Jersey. 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




MIDWINTER SCENE ON THE PASSAIC ABOUT 1852 

Building on the left was the original sawmill of David Ayres, destroyed by fire in 
1865. Road beside the hill in the centre of the picture was Jackson's Lane, now Oriental 
Street. The beach at its foot was a favorite bathing place. North of the hill was 
Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Little building out in the water on the right was known in 
1858 as Bloomfield's boathouse. Picture from a painting made by Otto Sommer about 
1852 for Andrew Lemassena. 




A local Statistician says: "The largest thing manufactured in 
Newark is a 100-foot steel structural beam, while the smallest is a 
screw, used in the manufacture of watches, which is 1/64 of an inch 
in length and .015 of an inch in diameter. 'Made in Newark' is more 
impressive when one learns that Newark is sending French kid to 
Paris, fireworks to China, and shears to Sheffield, England." The first 
industry of Newark was the manufacture of leather, which was begun 
in 1698. There was one tannery at that time in the town, and Azariah 
Crane established it. Since the establishment of this tannery, which 
marks the beginning of shoemaking in Newark, the city's industrial 
gates have swung wide; for, during the more than two hundred years 
that have passed, a great variety of business enterprises have sprung 
up around the site of that first plant on the south side of Market 
Street. 

To other things, also, Newark's gates have been opened. She 
has flung them wide to many leaders in the literary world, among 
them Washington Irving. To the Civil War she consecrated some 
of her noblest sons, among these "Fighting Phil Kearny," and she 
has housed master inventors, among them Seth Boyden and Thomas 
Edison. Other treasures innumerable she has given to, but never 
flaunted before, the world. She has been left, as has been said of 
New Jersey, "like a cider-barrel, tapped at both ends," between larger 
fields, adding, nevertheless, to her power with lightning rapidity, leav- 
ing behind, as she has grown, old landmarks and associations rich in 
historic fact and tradition. These facts and traditions about the 
people who have helped to build Newark, about the homes that have 
sheltered them, about the streets they have traversed, this little book 
has gathered together. 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



"THE BIBLE, THE BAYONET, AND THE INDIANS" 

Everybody went to church in the early days of Newark, and during a 
part of those first decades the good folk were summoned to worship by 
the monotonous call of a drum that little Joseph Johnson beat for eight 
shillings a year. One of the first things the settlers did, after build- 
ing houses on their home lots, was to ask Captain Robert Treat, 
Deacon Crane, and the Rev. Abraham Pierson, first pastor, to select 
a site on which to build a meeting-house. This First Church of New- 
ark stood on the west side of Broad Street, nearly opposite the site of the 
present First Presbyterian edifice; and the Rev. Jonathan F. Stearns, 
formerly a pastor of the church, asserted that undoubtedly it was the 
first church to be fully organized in the State of New Jersey. In a 
town-meeting of September lo, 1668, it was voted to build a meeting- 
house as soon as possible; and, though it was eighteen months before 
this modest little place of worship was completed, nevertheless the 
colony became a church as soon as it became a town, and for many 
years civil and religious life went hand in hand. For the first forty 
years after Newark's birth the meeting-house was the place not only 
for worship, but also for town-meetings and military proceedings. 
The whole town helped in the building of that first church. Bit by 
bit they fashioned its modest thirty-six feet of length, twenty-six feet 
of breadth, with thirteen feet between the joists. To it, after its 
completion, the drum, sending forth stately beats, called families to 
peaceful worship, until news reached the community that a fearful 
war was being waged by King Philip in New England, — news that 
alarmed the town lest similar atrocities should take place in Newark. 
It was then — in 1675 — that the settlers fitted up their meeting-house 
as a possible place of refuge. They fortified it strongly. They lathed 
the walls and filled in the spaces with mortar as a protection against 
bullets and arrows. Flankers were built to shelter the men-at-arms. 
Every fourth man of the congregation was required to go to church 
armed, and a guard in each of the flankers, throughout the church 
service, watched the surrounding country for possible attacks from 
the enemy. But the Hackensacks did not come: no Indians came; 
and throughout the history of the settlement none other than friendly 
relations existed between the whites and the aborigines. 

Here is a word picture, by the Rev. Jonathan F. Stearns, of a peaceful 
Sabbath morning at church time: "All up and down the street stand 
on either side, at regular intervals, the quiet homes of the planters, 
and everywhere through the open windows may be heard the voice 
of prayer and psalm-singing at the domestic altar, or the low hum of 
youthful voices studying or reciting the much-prized catechism. The 
hour of public worship now approaches, and the deep tones of the vil- 
lage drum, beaten along the broad grassy street, . . . give the signal to 
make ready. It beats again, and now the doors are opening, out come 
in every direction grave fathers and mothers, . . . sturdy sons and 
comely daughters, . . . down through the cross-streets, and some on 
horseback from the distant mountain. They pass along in pleasant 
family groups, and meet a united community at the house of prayer." 

10 








III: 







'^il'-vi^^fe^^ 




FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ERECTED 1790, NEWARK, NJ. 

Drawn by F. Schlegel and printed by Nagel & Weingartner about 1850. Owned by 
New Jersey Historical Society 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



Behind the church, Dr. Macwhorter has said, was the old training- 
ground. This was between the swamp and the brow of the hill. 
The burying-place was beyond this swamp, "on a rising knoll or tongue 
of land which divided this from a greater swamp or pond, westward 
of which the land rose into another hill, then presently sunk into a 
flat or brook, called ' the watering-place.' This last hill was the original 
burying-ground." 

"DIVIDENT HILL DIVIDES NEWARK FROM ELIZABETH" 

On a hill which now stands in the northernmost section of Wee- 
quahic Park, a little east of Elizabeth Avenue and on a line with 
Lyons Avenue, commissioners from Elizabethtown and Newark met 
May 20, 1668, to determine a boundary line between the towns. 
Ever since the knoll upon which they met has been known as Divident 
Hill. They agreed on a line which ran from "the top of the little 
round hill named Divident Hill; and from thence to run upon a North- 
west line into the country," until it reached Watchung Mountain. 
The occasion was most solemn, both Captain Treat and Mr. John 
Ogden praying among the people and rendering thanks for the loving 
agreement that had been made between the representatives of the 
two towns. Captain Treat said that, if the Newark people differed 
with the Elizabethtown people concerning the line, he believed that 
they would never prosper. 

"If any spot in this vicinity deserves a monument," wrote Jonathan 
F. Stearns, once pastor of the First Church, "it is the 'little round hill 
called Divident Hill.' . . . The pagans of classic days would have been 
sure to erect there a splendid temple of Concord." 

Mrs. Elizabeth Clementine Kinney of Newark, mother of Edmund 
Clarence Stedman, the poet, herself a poet and a friend of the Brownings, 
has well described the event in her poem entitled "Divident Hill." 

Divident Hill was the dividing-point between Newark town and 
Elizabethtown from May 20, 1668, until the organization of Clinton 
township in 1834. 

THE CAMP HOUSE, GENERAL WASHINGTON'S HAM AND 
EGGS, AND OLD NAT 

Captain Nathaniel Camp was turning up neat furrows in the field 
one sunny June day when a distinguished officer tied his horse 
securely to one of the buttonwood-trees for which the Camp place 
was famous. The captain's wife answered a resounding knock at her 
front door, and at once recognizing General Washington, a little flur- 
riedly maybe, invited him in. Of course, it may be imagined, she 
insisted that he occupy the best chair in her parlor. Of course she 
parted the shades that shielded that chair and just five others like it 
from destructive floods of sunshine, and let in the light; and, hurry- 
ing to the back door, she blew on the ready horn a long blast that 
brought her husband from the fields. 

Raids of the British upon Newark had harassed the town for some 
months past. These Hessian ravages had become more and more 

12 



HI STORI C NEWARK 




CAPTAIN NAiHAMEL CAMP'S HOMESTEAD 

Where General Washington had ham and eggs. It stood at the corner of Broad and Camp 

Streets and was surrounded by the lands of the Camp farm. It was destroyed in 1856 

From a drawing in the possession of Miss Mary Camp 



frequent and violent, leaving in their wake a tremendous loss 
of life and property. General Washington, with a plan in mind for 
checking these onslaughts, sought Captain Camp, who then com- 
manded a company of Essex County militia. The two men spent 
some time before satisfactory plans could be formed for successfully 
checking the enemy, and General Washington concluded the confer- 
ence by saying, " I will send you a gun to-morrow to complete the 
equipment of your company for this service, but you must guard it 
from capture in case the enemy attack in force." 

While these plans were being discussed, Mrs. Camp probably was 
anxiously searching the larder for some more aristocratic luxury than 
the ham and eggs which, she knew, she must serve to the general, should 
he have dinner in her house. Captain Camp, untouched by these 
household matters, still talked on. It pleased him to relate, years after- 
ward, how keenly General Washington enjoyed his ham and eggs. 

The promised "gun" arrived. It proved to be very much of a 
cannon, and they called it "Old Nat." The cannon survived in- 
numerable fights. It remained for a long time in Newark, where 
on special occasions it was used in firing salutes. In 1879 it was 
taken to Washington's headquarters at Morristown, where it has 
remained ever since. Valiantly did it and its gallant captain fulfil 

13 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




HOUSE OF PRAYER AND PARISH HOUSE 

Where Mistress Ann van Wagenen Plume locked a Hessian in her ice-house and where the 
Rev. Hannibal Goodwin invented the celluloid film for cameras 



their offices as guards of Newark. It is a well-known fact that on 
the night of January 25, 1780, the British, taking advantage of an 
unusually bitter night, made another raid, five hundred strong, upon 
the town. So few in numbers were the Patriots that defence was 
practically impossible. Landmarks are pointed out to this day where 
British torches lighted destructive fires on that memorable night of 
the New Year. After a party of the enemy had burned the academy, 
which stood on Washington Park, they entered the house of Joseph 

14 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



Hedden, Jr., then on Broad Street, dragged him, half-clothed, from 
a sick-bed, compelled him to accompany their party, and eventually 
imprisoned him in the Old Sugar House in New York. From the 
exposure to which he was subjected on that winter night Joseph 
Hedden shortly afterward died. William Camp, a Patriot merchant 
and a brother of Captain Nathaniel Camp, in the fall of 1776 was 
seized by a party of British marauders and taken to the Old Sugar 
House, where in January, 1777, he died. General Washington gave 
Captain Camp a flag of truce, under which he went to New York, 
brought home the body of his brother, and had it interred in the Old 
Burying-ground. 

The old homestead itself was built by Captain Camp's father, and 
it occupied the site given to his great-grandfather, William Camp, 
when the land in Newark was distributed among the early settlers in 
1667. The mansion, conspicuous for its beauty and attractive sur- 
roundings, stood on what is now the corner of Broad and Camp Streets, 
and was destroyed in 1856. Since then there has been erected on 
the site the magnificent brownstone residence which is owned and 
occupied by Mr. Uzal H. McCarter. A short distance from the spot 
where stood the old house is a modern home, occupied by Miss Mary 
Camp, a descendant of the gallant Revolutionary captain about whom 
cluster so many interesting stories. In Miss Camp's living-room is a 
drawing, done in India ink, of the old Camp place. Time has softened 
the lines of the picture, and in all its singular beauty the house stands 
amid its broad lawns, shadowed by the three immense buttonwood-trees. 

HOW MISTRESS ANN VAN WAGENEN PLUME LOCKED A 
HESSIAN IN THE PLUME ICE-HOUSE 

The Plume homestead was for years the home of the Plume family, 
and time has gathered about it interesting Revolutionary anecdotes. 
In the days when the shots fired at Lexington and Concord stirred 
to patriotism the hearts of the men of Newark, this old house stood 
on the outskirts of the town, — an easy prey for redcoats when they 
came in from Hackensack, as it was the first house they reached. 
Hessians then prowled through Newark, established themselves 
uninvited in homes, and destroyed property. Mistress Ann van 
Wagenen Plume, whose dairy stood then where the House of Prayer 
now stands on Broad Street, was a good Patriot. So, also, was her 
husband, and the troops of King George were not welcome. However, 
the Plumes had to make the best of them, only sometimes things did 
go badly, — so badly that IVIistress Plume showed high temper. There 
was an instance of this when, on hearing an unusual thumping one 
day downstairs, she descended to find Hessians chopping in her back 
parlor wood which they were about to put on the open fireplace. 

"Stop that!" said Mistress Plume. 

"If you speak another crooked word, I'll blow your head off!'* 
retorted the officer. 

"Ram's horn, if I die for it!" exclaimed the thoroughly angry lady, 
looking the officer straight in the eye. 

IS 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



Tradition says that the officer and soldiers kept their pistols in their 
belts, and beat a retreat from Ann van Wagenen Plume's back parlor. 

Now the lady of the Plume household was resourceful and shrewd. 
When, a few days later, she found a Hessian soldier taking an inventory 
of her ice-house, she said nothing, but shut the door and put the key 
in her pocket. It was cold in the ice-house, and the soldier howled for 
help; but the walls were thick, and nobody heard him. A short time 
afterward word flew that the Continentals were coming, and the red- 
coats, in great disarray, hastened off. They did not miss their impris- 
oned comrade. He was in the ice-house, shivering; and even the 
coveted provisions that surrounded him were of little comfort. 

The Continentals came. Mistress Plume led them directly to her 
ice-house, and unlocked the door. 

"Come out!" she said to her prisoner. 

He came out, wearing the customary Hessian hat, decorated with 
heavy brass trimmings. This the Continentals unceremoniously re- 
moved from his head, and presented to Mistress Plume as a reward 
for the capture. It is said that she took off these brass adornments, 
and that for years they served as a knocker on the front door. 

A tradition exists that General Washington stayed at this house in 
the winter of his eventful retreat through New Jersey. There are 
interesting events, also, that prove the Revolutionary record of the 
homestead to be but a part of its history. The Plume family records 
show that Nancy Visher Plume was the builder, that she lived in the 
house for years, that she wrote a will of something like twenty pages, 
and that there was much land adjoining the house, the precise boun- 
daries of which are not known. 

It was in 1849 that little groups of Newark men and women began 
to hold religious services in the old homestead, and the following year 
the property was purchased by these people and a church organized. 
The House of Prayer was built on the site of the dairy. The home- 
stead itself is used as the rectory, and is now the home of the Rev. 
John S. Miller. 

Some time prior to Mr. Miller's coming as rector to the House of 
Prayer, it was occupied by the Rev. Hannibal Goodwin, who in- 
vented there the celluloid film for cameras which has revolutionized 
photographic art. Mr. Goodwin's aim in inventing this film was to 
give his parishioners entertainment, and it was but a few years before 
his death that his success as an inventor became known. The fortune 
that the remarkable invention realized was never reaped by Mr. 
Goodwin, and scarcely enjoyed by his aged wife, whose death occurred 
shortly after that of her husband. The wealth that she left was 
somewhat scattered, as there were no near relatives. The inventor's 
workroom was the attic of the rectory at the House of Prayer, and it 
is said that the walls there still bear the marks of the acids used by 
Mr. Goodwin in his experiments. 

They say that this famous house is one of the oldest buildings in 
Essex County. Little changed, it stands in the heart of the city, at 
the corner of Broad and State Streets. There traffic and trolley cars, 
a busy railroad, and hurrying pedestrians whirl by its very doors. 

16 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



It remains, however, its quaint, dignified self in spite of all these 
modern things, and, standing in the shadow of the House of Prayer, 
it wears a peaceful look, as though its domain included as many green 
acres as of old. 

COLONEL JOSIAH OGDEN HARVESTS HIS WHEAT ON 
SUNDAY AND TOM MOORE'S SONNET TO A MISS OGDEN 

Two storms swept Newark town about 1732 or 1733. One was a 
rain-storm that hung on for several days, to the detriment of Josiah 
Ogden's wheat-field. This drizzly rain possibly stopped long enough 
for Colonel Ogden, faithful member of the First Church, to hitch up 
his horse, sally forth into his wheat-field on a Sunday, and with dex- 
trous wieldings of a pitchfork load his grain and haul it into the barn. 
Of course somebody saw him, and of course the news went round in 
less time than Puck's forty minutes. They "disciplined" Colonel 
Josiah for Sabbath-breaking, and he was not the sort of man that 
stood harsh criticism and punishment. He was his mother's own 
son, the son of Elizabeth Swaine, whose first husband died shortly 
after Newark was settled; and, because he inherited a mind of his 
own, out of the continued, drizzly rain that almost spoiled his wheat 
grew a controversy, long and bitter, that was prolonged for many 
more years than the summer rain lasted days. It is not so recorded, 
but it may safely be inferred that, after Colonel Ogden had withdrawn 
from the First Church, he declared, "I'll have a church to attend, if 
I have to build one." 

Conditions were favorable for such a move, as the Episcopal mis- 
sionaries had been working in Jersey, and Colonel Ogden turned his 
interest toward the establishment of an Episcopal church in Newark. 

He gathered his friends and sympathizers who had withdrawn 
with him from the First Church, and later, after much correspondence, 
took the matter up with the Synod at Philadelphia in 1734. While 
he was doing all these things, bitter controversies had arisen between 
the religious factions of the town. "The separation," says Dr. 
Macwhorter, "was the origin of the greatest animosity and alienation 
between friends and townsmen. Christians, neighbors, and relatives, 
that this town ever beheld. The storm of religious separation and 
rage wrought tumultuously. The openly declared Episcopalians were 
few, in comparison of the Presbyterians, yet there were two leaders, 
one on each side, who were pretty well poised in respect of point of 
abilities, wealth, connection, and ambition. This religious brand 
kindled a flame which was not extinguished till the conclusion of the 
late war." Colonel Ogden is referred to by Dr. Macwhorter as the 
leader of one faction, the Rev. Joseph Webb, the sixth pastor of 
the First Church, as the other leader, and the war to which the writer 
refers was the war of the Revolution. The Rev. Joseph Webb is 
pictured by his biographer as "a ground, condemned, and hated man, 
neglected by his own people, and hated and condemned by the new 
party." He was a man of peace, having neither oratorical powers 
nor gifts of controversy. It is pleasant to think that the war may 

17 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



have drawn the contending parties closer together. Both churches 
were then used as hospitals, and possibly the community, while en- 
gaged in larger interests, may have buried their local hatchet. How- 
ever, before these things happened. Pastor Webb was dismissed from 
his pulpit, though it was conceded that he was a faithful and pains- 
taking leader of his flock. Not long afterward, when visiting friends 
in Connecticut, he and his son were both drowned in crossing Say- 
brook Ferry on the Connecticut River. 

The first charter of the church was granted February 4, 1746; and, 
though this charter was suspended a year later, a new one was granted 
under which the present Trinity Church still carries on its work. In 
the name of George II was this charter granted "on the humble 
petition of our Loving subjects Edward Vaughan, late rector of Trinity 
Church at Newark, John Schuyler and Josiah Ogden, late church 
Wardens, and George Lurtling, David Ogden, John Ludlow, David 
Ogden, jr., William Kingsland, William Turner, George Vrelandt, 
Daniel Pierson, Roger Kingsland, and Emanuel Cocker, late vestry- 
men of said Church." It is said that the first edifice, erected in 
1733-34, was of hewn stone, 63 feet long by 45 feet broad, and 27 feet 
high, with a steeple 95 feet high and 20 feet square. A part of the 
original steeple is still standing. 

At the time of the Revolutionary War the head of the Ogden family 
was Judge David Ogden, son of the founder of Trinity Church. He 
was a Yale University graduate, talented, of high social position, a 
veritable country gentleman, generally respected in the town. As chief 
magistrate of the highest Provincial bench, he was chosen to succeed 
Chief Justice Smyth. He was a stanch espouser and follower of King 
George. "What happened after the outbreak of hostilities," says 
Joseph Atkinson, "is described by the Judge, in a document of rare 
interest, which was printed in London from the Judge's manuscript, 
in 1784, and is entitled 'The Claim of David Ogden Esq., 1784.'" 

In this document he asked Parliament for reimbursement, and 
narrated that he was forced to leave his property in New Jersey and 
seek the protection of the British troops in New York City; that he 
was deprived of his salary, his house plundered, and his property con- 
fiscated by the New Jersey authorities. 

In the estimate of his losses David Ogden lists his mansion house, 
out-houses, garden, coach-house, barns, granaries, stables, and about 
three acres of land, at Newark, in the main street, between the church 
and Presbyterian meeting-house, also several other lots of land. 

In January, 1777, accompanied by the Rev. Isaac Browne, pastor 
of Trinity Church, David Ogden fled to New York, and, after having 
amassed debts amounting to seven hundred pounds, before his allowance 
from the government came, he sailed for England. In their hasty flight 
from Newark the rector and his invalid wife left all their household 
goods behind them. Being stanch Royalists, they were anxious to reach 
a Royalist stronghold, then New York. After this flight the Rev. Mr. 
Browne wrote of Trinity Church being "used by the rebels as a hospital 
for the sick." He added also that "they broke up and destroyed the 
seats and erected a large stack of chimneys in the middle of it." 



HISTORIC N E WARK 




NEWARK, N.J., IN 1851-1858 

Overlooking the city from the residence of T. V. Johnson, Esq., which stood on Wallace Place 
and Bank Street. From a print by Smith, Fern & Co., 218 Fulton Street, New York 
Owned by the New Jersey Historical Society 

Colonel Josiah Ogden died before the Revolutionary War, and 
was buried somewhere in the Old Burying-ground. Now a slab lies 
over his remains, which have found a final resting-place at the entrance 
of Trinity Church. The inscription states that Colonel Josiah Ogden 
died May 17, 1763, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. "I give," 
he said in his will, "to the rector, church wardens, and vestry of 
Trinity Church, in Newark, my silver cup and porringer with two 
handles to the same, for and to the only use of said Church." 

Tom Aioore, the Irish poet, when he visited the United States in 
1804, tradition says, was a guest of the Ogdens, by whom he was en- 
tertained at their mansion on Belleville Avenue and Broad Street. 
It has also come down that the poet was hospitably received by the 
Lawrence family, who lived near the Ogdens, and that he sang some 
of his lyrics to the Lawrence sisters, who were called "The Three 
Graces." Moore was accompanied upon "the first piano ever owned 
in the place." His love lyric, "Come o'er the Sea," is said to have 
been written with an Ogden miss in mind. 



AARON BURR AND PRINCETON UNIVERSITY'S INFANCY 
IN NEWARK 

The Rev. Aaron Burr, grave scholar, pastor of the First Church, 
and president of Princeton College, wooed Esther Edwards three 
days, and brought her home to "The Parsonage" on June 29, 1752, — 
a timid, lovely girl of twenty-one. There was wondering and surmis- 
ing in the town the day she came and for the proverbial seven days 
afterward. Innumerable pictures of Esther Burr, daughter of Jona- 
than Edwards, of New England fame, were painted over teacups, 

19 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



and every pretext was employed by young and old to catch a glimpse 
of the bride who had come to brighten the parsonage. A young 
student of the college appears to have been intensely interested in 
the president's wife, for he wrote to friends that "in the month of 
May Mr. Burr journeyed into New England, and remained three days 
the guest of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards." During this time he 
must have been a most ardent suitor, for no sooner had he returned 
to Newark than he despatched a guide into New England to bring 
Miss Edwards and her mother to Jersey. "They say that she is a 
very valuable lady," continues the writer, and from later letters there 
is ample evidence that Esther Edwards Burr lived up to the young 
collegian's expectations. 

His son, Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United States, whose 
life fills so many pages of United States history, was born in the par- 
sonage at the corner of Broad and William Streets, February 6, 1756. 
In the fall of that year new college buildings were finished at Princeton, 
and President Burr, having the year previous severed his connection 
as pastor of the First Church, removed to Princeton with his family. 

The story of Princeton's infancy spent in Newark yields much of 
interest. Its earliest record includes a glimpse of the Rev. Aaron 
Burr's first years in Newark. The church needed a pastor, and, 
having heard of the merits of the young preacher, then in Con- 
necticut, despatched a committee to invite Mr. Burr as a candidate. 
The result of the negotiations was that Aaron Burr was installed 
pastor of the First Church. He seems to have taken his task seri- 
ously, and later he added to his responsibilities by joining on October 
22, 1746, Jonathan Dickinson, John Pierson, and Ebenezer Pemberton 
in organizing the college at Elizabethtown, called "The College of 
New Jersey." The charter was received on the above date, and the 
college organized May, 1747. The following October, on the death 
of President Dickinson, the eight students were removed to Newark, 
and Mr. Burr assumed the care of them. A new charter was granted 
by Governor Belcher, and on the 9th of November, 1748, Aaron Burr 
was chosen president, receiving no salary for the first three years he 
held that office. On the same day "a class of seven young men — 
Enos Ayres, Benjamin Chestnut, Hugo Henry, Israel Reed, Richard 
Stockton and Daniel Thane — who had completed their studies and had 
been examined and approved as qualified," received their first degree. 
All but Stockton afterward became ministers of the gospel, and Richard 
Stockton became one of New Jersey's most distinguished jurists. 

This Commencement Day in Newark began in the forenoon with 
a prayer by the president, followed by reading the charter in the 
meeting-house. In the evening the president delivered a "handsome 
and elegant Latin oration," and the students who had performed their 
parts in the "customary scholastic disputations" received the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts. Governor Belcher was given the degree of 
Master of Arts. After a salutatory oration pronounced by Mr. Thane 
the Commencement concluded with a prayer by the president. The 
trustees spent the evening in adopting a code of laws for the college 
and making arrangements for its future. 



HISTORIC NE WAR K 



So that in Newark was Princeton University auspiciously and suc- 
cessfully started on its brilliant way. The college remained in 
Newark after its organization about eight years. The students lived 
in private families, and the public academical exercises took place in 
the County Court-house. 

Not only did Air. Burr with his limited means contribute freely 
to the support of the college, but through his agency subscriptions 
were obtained in Boston, one of which was one hundred pounds from 
a Colonel Alvord, who was characterized by Joseph Shippen from 
Philadelphia, a student at the time, as "one of the greatest benefactors 
the College is blessed with." The same student also wrote, upon 
hearing the college had won two hundred pounds in a lottery, "It 
hath given the president, who hath been sick (these four or five 
days), such a pleasure that his spirits are greatly refreshed, which were 
before very low." 

About ninety students took their first degree at the College of New 
Jersey while it was in Newark, among whom was Samuel Davies, a 
well-known pulpit orator, who, it is said, inspired the eloquence of 
Patrick Henry. 

Aaron Burr, Sr., has been described as a man of small stature and 
of slender frame. "To encounter fatigue," says Governor Livingston, 
"he has a heart of steel, and for the dispatch of business the most 
amazing talents." Stearns has said that he was "modest, easy, 
courteous, obliging," and it has been declared that he was a perfect 
master of pleasing in company, and that in the pulpit he verily shone 
as a star of the first magnitude. Mr. Burr did not live to preside at 
a Commencement of Princeton College in its new home. One of the 
last charges he made was that there should be no unnecessary display 
at his funeral, but that the money for this be spent for the poor. A 
short year after the death of her husband Mrs. Burr died, leaving a 
daughter, Sarah, and the son, Aaron. 

The parsonage was occupied for a time by Pastor Macwhorter of 
the First Church, and it was a place of refuge for the jolly Scotchman's 
flock when news flew abroad that the redcoats were in town. The 
building was destroyed in 1835. 

THE BOUDINOT HOUSE IN WHICH LAFAYETTE WAS A 
GUEST WHEN HE VISITED NEWARK 

Welcome! Freedom's favorite son! 
Welcome! Friend of Washington; 
For, though his sun's in glory set, 
His spirit welcomes Lafayette. 

Welcome! Friend in adverse hours! 
Welcome! to fair Freedom's bowers; 
Thy deeds her sons will ne'er forget, 
Ten millions welcome Lafayette! 
So?ig sung the day Lafayette came to Newark; from "Centinel of Freedom.^' 

Lafayette revisited Newark, September 23, 1824. He was met 
at Jersey City by Essex troops, and gallantly escorted over the 

21 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




THE BOUDINOT MANSION ON PARK PLACE WHERE LAFAYETTE AND 
WASHINGTON WERE GUESTS 

As it looked before alteration. The site is now occupied by the Public Service Building 
From a print owned by Miss Mary Camp 

turnpike to Newark. At noon, when he was within a short distance 
of the town, cannon boomed, announcing to the people his approach. 
Crowds cheered him as he passed. Flags waved, and cannon roared 
still louder as he rode into Broad Street. Military Park had been 
converted into a mass of tents. Regiments were drawn up in line, 
with three hundred infantry and five hundred horse. Lafayette was 
conducted to the house of Judge Elias E. Boudinot on Park Place, 
where a suite of rooms had been specially prepared for him. At the 
Boudinot mansion he met a representation of judges from the District 
and Superior Courts, also a few prominent men of Newark. Early 
in the afternoon a great display awaited General Lafayette at Mili- 
tary Park, when he passed through lines of soldiers and townspeople 
to a huge dome, forty feet in height, constructed of green vines 
and masses of flowers, and approached through thirteen arches, rep- 
resenting the Thirteen States for which the brave Frenchman had 
fought. There was a platform supported by four arches, and on 
each arch an inscription in praise of Lafayette. The inscriptions 
were: on the north, "His laurels shall never fade"; on the east, 
"We shall ne'er look upon his like again"; on the south, "For him 
whom a nation delights to honor"; on the west, "Now I am going 
to serve you." 

While songs were sung by male and female choruses, Lafayette 
passed to the flower-decked portico, which bore in white blossoms his 
name, and was seated there while Theodore Frelinghuysen, Attorney- 
General of the State, delivered the address of welcome. Afterward the 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



troops were reviewed, and Lafayette was accompanied to the Boudinot 
mansion, where a great feast was spread, " moistened with a choice glass 
of wine," furnished by Morton of the Newark Hotel. Colonel Ward 
proposed this toast: — "Our distinguished guest. General Lafayette. — 
We thank France for her son. May America not forget and Europe 
long feel to good purpose the influence of his bright example." 

General Lafayette responded: "The town of Newark. — And may 
her population, prosperity, and industry increase in the same wonder- 
ful proportion I have been delighted to witness." 

Three years ago the famous mansion in which Lafayette received 
entertainment was demolished, and in its place stands the new 
$5,000,000 home and trolley terminal of the Public Service Corpora- 
tion. So passed the house built by Judge Elisha Boudinot, Elias's 
father, near the year 1799; and though there had been slight changes, 
in the way of a gable and a veranda added, also an iron fence placed 
around the front lawn, for years the mansion maintained its quaint 
simplicity and dignified grandeur. 

Few knew just how it did look when Elisha Boudinot built it. 
Fortunately, a few months ago. Miss Mary Camp found among her 
papers a circular of the "school she used to attend," which was easily 
identified as the Boudinot house, for about five years converted into 
a school for young ladies before it passed into the possession of the 
Condict family. The Misses Bucknall conducted this institute, and 
on the circular they made, in brief, the following announcement, — 
probably circulated about the year 1850, after they moved to the 
Boudinot house: "The building occupied by the Institute is unsur- 
passed by any establishment of the kind in the State. It is in front 
of the Parks and in the center of the city. It is supplied with a furnace, 
baths, gas, and all modern appliances for domestic comfort. The 
school rooms are furnished with desks after the models of the most 
tasteful schools in the city of New York. The dormitories and 
parlors are fitted up for comfort." 

Judge Elisha Boudinot was well known in his time, both as a Revo- 
lutionary Patriot on the Committee of Safety for Essex County and 
as a host. In the discharge of his duties in the Revolution he was 
brought in close touch with Washington, who was frequently enter- 
tained at the mansion in Park Place. Both Judge and Mrs. Boudinot 
were fond of flowers. Their garden and orchard extended far to the' 
rear of their home, in fact to Mulberry Street. Their dining-room, 
overlooking the garden, occupied the entire width of the house. 
Here Alexander Hamilton held conferences with the master of the 
home, and it is also asserted that here Washington attended the wed- 
ding of a fair daughter of the Boudinot family. After the ceremony 
the bride's father led his son-in-law to another room, and gravely 
gave him this admonition: — 

"My son, lay down the reins with the wedding slippers, if you 
would be happy." 

The bride and groom went on their honeymoon, during which the 
bride's uncle called his nephew-in-law aside, and gravely gave him 
this admonition: — 

23 



HISTORIC NEWARK 








COCKLOFT HALL, WHERE WASHINGTON IRVING WROTE "SALMAGUNDI 

PAPERS" 

Still standing at the corner of Gouverneur Street and Mount Pleasant Avenue 

"My son, take up the reins with the wedding sHppers, if you would 
be happy." 

For many years afterward the lady was jestingly reminded of these 
contrary bits of advice given her husband. 

On January 31, 1803, was organized at the Boudinot house the 
Female Charitable Society of Newark, with Mrs. Elisha Boudinot 
first director. This organization is said to be the fifth oldest chari- 
table society conducted by women in the United States. Early in 
the last century an auxiliary to the Female Charitable Society was 
formed, and still continues its work under the name first chosen, 
"The Crazy Jane." 

The Condict family of Newark bought the Boudinot mansion in 
1855, and continued to occupy it until a few years ago. When the 
first Boudinot house burned, so well liked was the judge that his 
neighbors all rallied, asserting, as they cleared the cellar, that the 
judge should not go without a roof if they could help it. Judge Elisha, 
whose second mansion is the one where he royally entertained, was 
born in 1749 and died in 1819. For years, in the beautiful garden at 
the rear of the house, stood two towering elms, named by Judge and 
Mrs. Boudinot, in honor of their distinguished guests, Washington 
and Lafayette. 



24 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



WASHINGTON IRVING, COCKLOFT HALL, AND "SALMA- 
GUNDI" PAPKRS 

"It is pleasantly situated on the banks of a sweet pastoral stream; not 
so near town as to invite an inundation of idle acquaintance, who come to 
lounge away an afternoon, nor so distant as to render it an absolute deed 
of charity or friendship to perform the journey. It is one of the oldest habi- 
tations in the country, and was built by my cousin Christopher's grandfather, 
who was mine by the mother's side, in his latter days, to form, as the old 
gentleman expressed himself, 'a snug retreat where he meant to sit himself 
down in his old days and be comfortable for the rest of his life.' " — Washington 
Irving. 

Cockloft Hall still stands — changed, for a city has grown up around 
it — on the banks of the Passaic. Pindar Cockloft might wander 
to-day over the place and not recognize a single landmark, for the 
house has been remodelled to meet present-day needs; and no summer- 
house of Salmagundi fame remains, no fish-pond nor cherry-tree, no 
winding road, over which in the old days was wont to lumber the an- 
cient chariot, "drawn by old horses indubitably foaled in Noah's ark." 
Cockloft Hall was a hundred years old when Washington Irving and 
the "Lads of Kilkenny" made the place ring with their merriment, 
and caused it to become immortal by giving to the world Salmagundi 
papers. To these stories — which, when published, created a great 
furor in the town of Newark — W ashington Irving, William Irving, and 
James Kirke Paulding contributed. Irving was wont to call the merry 
group that gathered in Gouverneur Kemble's house (Cockloft Hall), 
on the banks of the Passaic, the "Lads of Kilkenny," and they were 
also known as "the Nine W^orthies." Henry Ogden and Henry Bre- 
voort, Jr., were well-known members of the group. The Gouverneur 
house itself had been inherited by Gouverneur Kemble, a friend of 
Irving. It is said that the house was left to the care of a negro and 
his wife, and was opened only when the "Lads of Kilkenny" came 
from New York for the refreshment that Cockloft Hall must have 
given. 

Fact and fiction are closely interwoven in the Salmagundi tales. 
In the first place, it is interesting to know that Irving visited Gouver- 
neur Kemble at his Mount Pleasant Avenue home early in 1800. The 
house passed out of the hands of the Kemble family about 1824. The 
famous "Hall" still stands on extensive grounds at the corner of 
Alount Pleasant Avenue and Gouverneur Street. 

Stand down near the Passaic in a leisure hour, — with your back to 
it, if you please, for the purity of the stream is no more, — and gaze 
intently at ancient Cockloft Hall. Shake your finger, if you will, at 
old-time and fantastic fiction, and say to yourself: "They lived there, 
— every one of them, — the Cockloft family. There was Pindar Cock- 
loft, dabbling his quill hither and yon over epigrams and elegies which 
he composed. In yonder window — the one to the left — was a chair 
in the bottom of which he concealed the self-same epigrams and ele- 
gies; or did he hide them way up in the tiptop part of the attic, in an 
old chest poked away under the eaves .^" Declare that you see Aunt 

25 



HISTORIC N E WARK 



Charity, as she peers anxiously from her windows to see if the threat- 
ened French boarding-house is being built opposite Cockloft Hall. 
Fancy Cousin Christopher — unfortunate soul! — inheriting all the 
"whimwhams" of his ancestors, rummaging in the library for musty 
volumes that are so precious to him. Survey at your leisure, in fancy, 
the famous cherry-tree and fish-pond, and catch a glimpse of Csesar — 
trusty Caesar — gathering a group about him to hear ghost stories. 
Once more gaze long at the old house "which groaned whenever the 
wind blew," and remember it was Washington Irving who gave a 
matchless gift to Newark in creating Cockloft Hall. 

It was the elder Cockloft who conceived the notion of blowing up 
a bed of rocks for the purpose of having a fish-pond, although the river 
ran about one hundred yards' distance from the house, and was well 
stocked with fish; but there was nothing, he said, like having things 
to one's self. As he proceeded, his views enlarged: he would have 
a summer-house built on the margin of the fish-pond; he would have 
it surrounded with elms and willows; and he would have a cellar dug 
under it, for some incomprehensible purpose, which remains secret to 
this day. 

A new street, opened at about the time of the Civil War, was the 
cause of the destruction of this summer-house. It is described as 
being peculiar in shape and arrangement. The door faced the river, 
and the windows three points of the compass. Cockloft (referring, of 
course, to Isaac Gouverneur, an ancestor of Gouverneur Kemble) 
was "determined to have all of his views on his own land and be 
beholden to no man for a prospect. So he placed, you see, the door of 
the summer-house on the side toward the water, while the windows all 
looked inland." A commentator has expressed the opinion that it 
takes no "Will Wizard" to solve the problem of the cellar, which was 
planned for bottles which would be handy when needed. 

When the opening of a new street did away with the summer-house, 
one John P. Wakeman purchased the dissected fragments, and endeav- 
ored to secure co-operation in putting together the materials and setting 
them up, restored, in another place. Finding it impossible to carry 
through his plan, he utilized the remnants of the famous resort of 
Cockloft for a carriage-house, afterward used for a residence on 
Ogden Street. 

Irving's room at Cockloft Hall he describes with his usual humor: 
"My allotted chamber in the Hall is the same that was occupied in 
the days of yore by my honored uncle John. The room exhibits many 
memorials which recall to my remembrance the solid excellence and 
amiable eccentricities of that gallant old lad. Over the mantel-piece 
hangs the portrait of a young lady dressed in a flaring, long-waisted, 
blue silk gown; be-flowered, and be-furbelowed, and be-cuffed, in 
a most abundant manner; she holds in one hand a book, which she 
very complaisantly neglects, to turn and smile on the spectator; in 
the other a flower, which I hope, for the honor of Dame Nature, was the 
sole production of the painter's imagination; and a little behind her 
is something tied to a blue ribbon, but whether a little dog, a monkey, 
or a pigeon, must be left to the judgment of future commentators. 

26 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



This little damsel, tradition says, was my uncle John's third flame; 
and he would infallibly have run away with her, could he have per- 
suaded her into the measure; but at that time ladies were not quite 
so easily run away with as Columbine; and my uncle, failing in the 
point, took a lucky thought, and with great gallantry ran off with her 
picture, which he conveyed in triumph to Cockloft Hall, and hung up 
in his bed-chamber as a monument of his enterprising spirit." 

Thus, in merry mood, and sometimes grave, the Gouverneur family 
— changed but little, it is said, save in name — live through the pages 
of Salmagu7idi, where their names are indelibly written for generations 
to come. Of Newark itself Irving writes but little, though in later 
years he wrote, "With Newark are associated in my mind many 
pleasant recollections of early days, and of social meetings at an old 
mansion on the banks of the Passaic." 

OLD DEACON SAMUEL ALLING'S MISTAKE WHEN HE 
FACED A COMPANY OF BRITISH 

There was an Ailing in the Revolutionary War who was a lieutenant 
of the local militia and a grandson of the respected Deacon Samuel 
Ailing of the First Church who came from New Haven about 1701. 
The young lieutenant's name was John, and on a bitter winter day 
he espied a company of redcoats filing down the street toward the 
northwest corner of Broad and IMarket where the Ailing place then 
stood, now occupied by a drug store. The temper of these soldiers 
was none of the best. There had been Patriot "snipers" all along 
the march, and their mettle was pretty well tried by the time they 
halted in front of the Ailing house. 

"The British are here, Abigail! Run to the cellar with the chil- 
dren!" called Lieutenant John to his wife. 

The old deacon, nearing the century mark, hearing an unusual 
commotion both within and without the house, raised the window of 
his room in an upper story, and, desiring to urge popping off as many 
redcoats as possible, called out: "Give it to 'em, John! Give it to 
'em!" There he peered — in true Barbara Frietchie attitude — right" 
into the faces of a company of British. 

"Shall I shoot the old devil .^" called a soldier to his officer. 

"No," responded the officer, "he's too old to harm us." 

As a matter of fact, the deacon might have been picked off on the 
spot instead of living many a day to relate and laugh at the incident 
and the saving of his "old gray head," had it not been for the fact 
that "John" with his trusty flint-lock was making things warm for 
the enemy. Since it was intensely cold, he loaded and unloaded his 
gun at the kitchen fire. The British, finding many of their number 
were being picked off like sparrows, sent a contingent around to the 
back door of the house. When they broke in one door. Lieutenant 
John went out another, sought refuge in his orchard at the back of 
the house, dodged shot from behind apple-trees, and escaped with a 
slight wound in his leg. 

The Ailing family had two houses in Newark, — a town-house on 

27 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




DAVID ALLING'S HOUSE 

Which stood on Broad Street near Fair. Also known as Frenchman's Place, where Talleyrand 
and Chateaubriand stayed. From an oil painting in the possession of Clarence Willis Ailing 

the northwest corner of Broad and Market, back of which stretched 
an orchard, and a farm-house once located at 388 High Street. "This 
was my great-grandfather's summer home," says a descendant of the 
Revolutionary lieutenant. It is not known when this house was 
built, but it was torn down some time ago, and the site is now occupied 
by a manufacturing plant. The property where the Ailing farm-house 
stood was occupied for some years by the Crane family, who were 
among the first settlers of Newark. One of the Cranes married a 
daughter of the Ailing family. The farm property extended at one 
time over many acres in that section of the town. The dining-room 
of the house had in it a great fireplace, and there is a tradition that 
Henry Clay once dined in the room. 



WHERE TALLEYRAND, EXILED FROM 
CHATEAUBRIAND LIVED AND WROTE 



FRANCE, AND 



Monsieur Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, who became 
the subtle, shrewd, and unprincipled Minister of Foreign Affairs at 
the Court of Napoleon, like the monarch he afterward served, was 
once exiled from France. When in America, he spent about six months 
in Newark, where he occupied the house of David Ailing, maker of 
most excellent chairs. This house then stood on Broad near Lafayette 
Street, and was long known as the Frenchman's house because of 
the Frenchmen who had frequented it. It seems not a little incongru- 
ous that this brilliant statesman, Talleyrand, who has come down in 

28 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



history as a teacher of his own French school in Newark, should have 
had a stable stocked with good horses, and should have worn a diamond 
of more than ordinary size and brilliancy in his shirt-front. 

Possibly the townspeople of the early nineteenth century, as they 
watched the coming and going of Talleyrand and his countrymen, 
may have gathered up whatever newspapers they possessed recording 
foreign affairs, and read of the part that the famous Frenchman had 
played in the history of France. It will be remembered that, when a 
dissolute woman of Versailles forged the name of Marie Antoinette 
and purchased a magnificent pearl necklace, so great was the wrath 
of the populace against the queen that even the Court of Louis XVI 
was convinced that the ragged, starving mob that muttered through 
the streets was speaking truth. Talleyrand must have believed in 
the guilt of the queen, for he prophetically remarked: — 

"Alind that miserable alfair of the necklace. I should be nowise 
surprised if it should overturn the French monarchy." 

The "miserable affair of the necklace" may have been part of the 
series of events which finally drove Talleyrand to New York City, 
where he remained for some time in "mercantile business," which he 
eventually abandoned. He then went to Philadelphia, where he was 
lavishly entertained in French circles. 

"I hear," wrote George Washington to the Marquis of Lansdowne, 
"that the general reception he met with [in Philadelphia] is such to 
compensate him, as far as the state of our society will permit, for 
what he has abandoned on quitting Europe." 

It is stated that Talleyrand meddled somewhat ostentatiously in 
affairs of state in this country, and that he especially asserted himself 
in Philadelphia. He came to Newark late in 1794, ^^^ there are no 
records that tell of his joining the then famous fox-hunts, no accounts 
of his mingling socially in the town, no stories of his ever rambling 
with any fair belle of Newark through the paradise for courtship, then 
called Lovers' Walk. It has been suggested that he helped make 
chairs in David Alling's shop, but that is no more compatible with 
the large diamond and good horses than is the French school over 
which he is said to have presided. 

A^Ionsieur Talleyrand wrote, it is claimed, in the Ailing house his 
essay, "Une Memoire sur les Relations Commerciales des Etats-Unis 
vers 1797," afterward published in France; and it is further claimed 
that the Viscount de Chateaubriand, French Minister of Foreign 
Affairs in 1823, visited Talleyrand and planned, while in Newark, the 
outline of "Le Genie du Christianisme," which he afterward completed 
in a London garret and published in Paris. 

The Frenchman's house was built by David Ailing a century ago, 
and, being double, the house was for many years one of the show 
places of the town. It was spacious, and had an extensive court-yard 
at the back. In the chair-shop were made the "beautiful sofa and 
most elegant sideboard of an entirely new pattern" which Judge Elias 
E. Boudinot ordered for the suite which was furnished for Lafayette 
when he visited this country in 1824. David Alling's first wife was 
Nancy Ball, descendant of Stephen Ball, the Revolutionary Patriot 

29 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



murdered by the Tories. On a part of the Ailing estate now stands a 
business building, and it is interesting to know that Stephen B. Ailing, 
the son of David, went personally to Vermont, where he selected the 
marble used in the office building. 

JERSEY APPLEJACK ROUTS THE HESSIANS 

A tradition of the Bruen family claims that the tea-kettle now stand- 
ing in a glass case at the New Jersey Historical Society on West Park 
Street was the first — and for some time the only — tea-kettle owned 
in Newark. It belonged to Obadiah Bruen, former member of the 
Plymouth Colony and early settler in Jersey. If tradition may be 
relied on, this symbol of home comfort made many a visit to Obadiah 
Bruen's neighbors; for, even though tea was both scarce and expensive 
in those days, still there arose special occasions at which the ladies of 
the little town on the Passaic gossiped over their cups when "com- 
pany" came to supper. Substantial tea-kettle that it was, there is a 
possibility that the neighbors who borrowed it were not so careful as 
the family themselves or vice versa, for its sides bear evidences of a 
number of severe bumps and of a long and continued usage. 

Equally interesting is a Bruen tradition concerning a party of Hes- 
sians that during the Revolutionary War, on a bitter winter day, 
stopped their horses in front of the Bruen house and rapped with 
their whipstocks on the front door. The head of the house, like many 
a good Patriot neighbor in Newark, with real diplomacy withheld all 
indication of "what side he was on." 

"Welcome, gentlemen, welcome!" he may have said, as cold gusts 
swept his hall; for he certainly invited his visitors in, according to 
Bruen traditions. The winter wind chilled him, and he thought of 
a little, hungry company of half-clothed Patriots not far away. It was 
through his foresight, keen appreciation of the situation, and expedi- 
ency of action that this forlorn band of his countrymen was saved. 
"A bitter day it is abroad, but ' rest you merry,' " he probably remarked 
still more jovially, as the Hessians stamped in with much puffing and 
clanging of weapons. "I have that in my cellar which will warm you 
and send you on your way again, — new men and better able to with- 
stand the elements." 

Excellent applejack was stored in the Bruen cellar, and servants 
were summoned to tap a good keg, which they brought to their master. 
Generously he dispensed the amber beverage to his guests, careful 
all the while not to serve himself. Again and again he urged that 
glasses be drained. The soldiers lingered until, warm and drowsy, 
they went out into the cold of the winter day. Some of them slug- 
gishly mounted, while others cut across the meadow behind the house 
in which they had quaffed the excellent applejack. Almost to a man, 
tradition says, they went to sleep on the meadow, and nearly all 
perished from the cold. The few who survived were captured by 
American troops. 

On the northwest corner of Hill and Broad Streets, where once 
stood the old Bruen house of Revolutionary fame, was built in its 

30 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



place, and in its turn torn down years ago, another Bruen mansion, 
surrounded by spacious gardens and luxuriant orchards. It has been 
described as having the appearance of a beautiful Southern manor, 
with its stables and corn-fields, arbors, hedges, and broad walks. 
Without there was an abundance of red and white rose-bushes; within, 
frescoed ceilings and rosewood doorways. In the centre of the roof 
was built a massive dome. 

The first double wedding reception in Newark was celebrated at 
the close of the Civil War in this mansion. Miss Julia Bruen and 
Mortimer S. Ward, and General Theodore Runyon, afterward am- 
bassador to Germany, and Miss Clementine Bruen, were married on 
January 20, 1864, in the Central Methodist Church, the double recep- 
tion afterward being held at the Bruen house. Some of the descend- 
ants of Julia Bruen and Mortimer S. Ward believe that somewhere 
on the old Bruen place is buried a chest of silver that was concealed 
for safety during the war of the Revolution. 

THE CAPTURE OF JOSEPH HEDDEN, JR. 

The winter of 1780 was an unusually bitter one, and in January of 
that year the British, taking advantage of the intense cold, sent two 
raiding expeditions into Jersey. Colonel Abraham van Buskirk 
led his force of four hundred men across the ice from Staten Island 
into Elizabethtown, where during the night he burned the town-hall, 
"Parson" Caldwell's church, and captured nearly half a hundred 
of the post-guard. In the mean time Major Lumm, in command 
of the other expedition, marched five hundred strong into Newark. 
They burned the academy that stood in what is now Washington 
Park. They next raided the house of Joseph Hedden, Jr., and 
dragged him from a sick-bed. Eliza Roberts, a sister of Mr. 
Hedden, who then lived in her colonial house, was aroused, and told 
that the redcoats were dragging her brother away from his home, 
opposite, on Broad Street. Across the park, lighted by the flames 
of the burning academy, Mrs. Roberts hastened to her brother's 
house, and found his wife in her night-clothes, cut and bleeding, 
endeavoring to save her husband. The son had jumped from a 
window, and escaped up the river on the ice. On that bitter night 
Mr. Hedden was marched all the way to New York, where he was 
imprisoned in the Old Sugar House prison, and, after being kept there 
for some months, he was brought back to his Broad Street home, 
where he soon died. It is thought that the fact of Mr. Hedden's 
being a commissioner "for the seizing and inventory of the estates 
and effects of persons gone over to the enemy" made him a person 
hated by the British. 

A "HARVEY BIRCH" MEEKER OUTWITS THE BRITISH 

Within a short distance of historic Divident Hill, where the Eliza- 
bethan and Newark settlers met to fix a boundary line, in what is 
now the Lyons Farms part of the city, stood the old Meeker place, 
which had gathered a hundred years of history before the war of the 

31 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



Revolution gave young Josiah Meeker his opportunity. An aged 
mother, it is said, prevented young Josiah from joining the ranks of 
the regular army. So he played his part nearer home, and was a 
familiar figure, dashing over the country on a swift horse, sometimes 
in the uniform of an officer, at others in the garb of a countryman. 
Thus disguised, he carried messages from one part of the American 
army to another, ran great risks, and was often within the enemy's 
lines. During the war the Meeker house was the gathering-place for 
Continental soldiers. Often, too, the British came, asking boldly 
for refreshment. A score or so of redcoats once came to the Meeker 
house, where they were welcomed by young Josiah, who summoned 
an old colored mammy and told her to place before them an abun- 
dance of everything from the larder. The best dinner and the finest 
cider— for which Newark was then famous — were brought. After 
offering every courtesy to his guests, young Meeker may have said: 
"I want you to excuse me. When you came, I was just starting for 
my grandmother's death-bed. I must go now." So gracious was 
he that no suspicion was aroused in the minds of the enemy. He went 
to the stable, brought out his favorite horse, and started at great speed 
to collect from the country-side, for three or four miles around, a 
party with which to assail the British feasting in his house. 

What might have happened, had the British continued to make 
merry over their most excellent cider, may be imagined. But fortune 
intervened in the person of one Phyllis, colored, a neighbor, violently 
pro-British. Phyllis had seen the soldiers enter the Meeker house, 
had observed that they remained a long time, and she had seen young 
Josiah Meeker ride away in haste. Phyllis knew his habits, and was 
not long in making up her mind that it was time for her to take a hand 
in things. The redcoats were having a jovial party when she appeared 
in the doorway. 

She angrily told them that Josiah Meeker was gathering the Con- 
tinentals, and, if the troopers didn't wish to be butchered on the spot, 
they'd better scamper, which they certainly did. In doing so, they 
left pistols, hats, swords, and belts. They ran for their horses in the 
Meeker barn, and barely escaped; for, as they dashed off wildly 
toward Elizabethtown, Meeker and his party surrounded the house. 

These are but fragments of the interesting events connected with 
the old homestead. Until its sale a few years ago, the place was in the 
uninterrupted possession of one family for two centuries and a quarter. 
At the time the land on which it stood was sold for building lots, it 
was the oldest house in the State of New Jersey. During all the years 
the Meeker family had been a brave one that had helped make Newark 
history from the first Meeker settler, who was given the land on which 
the homestead stood after playing the constable in defiance of Car- 
teret and pulling down some houses and fences of which he and the 
"Associates" didn't approve. Thereby hangs a tale, for the begin- 
nings of which one has to turn back Jersey pages to the 28th of Octo- 
ber, 1664. There was then a tract of land lying west of Staten Island 
which some hardy colonists from Long Island and New Haven pur- 
chased and occupied. They were known as the "Associates," and 

32 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




THE MEEKER HOUSE, HOiME OF A BRAVE COLONIAL SPY 

Built in 1676. Stood on Prospect Avenue (now Chancellor Avenue) a block west of Elizabeth 

Avenue, in the Lyons Farms section of Newark. At the time of demolition a few years ago 

considered to be the oldest house standing in New Jersey 

among their number was this first Meeker of all, whom history dubs 
Goodman Meeker. Somebody has said that he was Jersey's first 
constable; for, in defiance of Carteret, who with his followers were 
named the "Proprietors," he pulled down a house or two that he and 
the "Associates" claimed, according to previous agreements between 
themselves and Carteret, should not have been erected. Goodman 
Meeker was proclaimed a mutineer, an enemy to the government, and 
his property was confiscated. His old neighbors, grateful to him for 
his eflPorts on their behalf, gave him the land on which this old Meeker 
house was erected in approximately the year 1676. The house was 
built by his son, Benjamin Meeker, who came with him from the New 
Haven Colony, where he was born. "One hundred years later," 
writes a descendant of the first Meeker, "this house was used as an 
underground station for the Continental soldiers who escaped from 
the Prison Ships at the Wallabout." 

The old house had a solid stone foundation. Above this were eigh- 
teen-inch brick walls, covered with boards, shingled on the outside 
and plastered within. With the exception of reshingling the roof and 
rebuilding the chimneys, no changes were made in the old place. 

At the Meeker homestead during the Revolution Elihu Fish, a 
Continental officer, who escaped from the prison and afterward 
became a lay judge of a Connecticut court, as well as a hotel pro- 
prietor, found shelter after having vainly sought it from place to place. 
When he arrived at Meeker's, he was hungry, penniless, and sick. 

33 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



The good women of the house and young Josiah nursed him back to 
health, and during the days of his convalescence he remained at 
home with the aged mother, while Josiah Meeker scoured the country 
in the interests of the Continental Army. In 1824, when Lafayette 
was in Newark, there came to the old homestead a distinguished 
gentleman, who proved to be the once penniless young officer, Elihu 
Fish, whom the Meekers had befriended in the days of the Revolution. 
He did not tarry long; but, after he went away, he sent back a set of 
spoons that are now cherished by descendants of daring Josiah Meeker. 
The house was torn down about two years ago. 

THE SCHUYLER MANSION 

A fortunate accident, early in the eighteenth century, gave a new 
turn to the family fortunes of the Schuylers. While one of their negro 
servants was ploughing in a field on their estate, near the banks of the 
Passaic, he turned up a heavy green stone, which he carried to his 
master. This stone was sent to England for an examination, the 
result being anxiously awaited. The assay probably far exceeded 
Arent Schuyler's expectations, for the analyst declared the bit of 
rock to contain no less than eighty per cent, of clear copper. The 
vein was opened, and found to contain large quantities of copper. 
Capital for the development of the newly discovered mine was easily 
procured. As the coffers of Arent Schuyler filled, he thought of his 
slave, and, tradition says, wished to reward him. The negro was 
summoned to the house, and told that in addition to his freedom he 
would be granted any three wishes within reason that he might make. 
His refusal of freedom was definite and instantaneous, as his first wish 
was that he should always be allowed to work for his master. The 
wish being granted, he pondered for a while. At last, with evident 
satisfaction at having solved so difficult a problem, he announced his 
two other desires: — 

"I wants, marse, all the tobacco that I can smoke as long as I lives 
and" — this with a rush — "a dressing-gown with brass buttons the 
same as yours." 

"But," protested the amused Mr. Schuyler, "wish for something 
valuable." 

Thoughtfully scratching his head, after a serious pause the slave 
voiced the "valuable" wish: — • 

"Well, marse, I think I'd like a little more tobacco." 

The mining enterprise led the owner to import from England one 
of the Watt and Boulton steam-engines, which, brought over in 1753, 
was said to be the first erected in this country. Expert geological 
talent was also procured from Europe, the most distinguished being 
Josiah Hornblower, who assumed for a time the superintendence of 
the mine, which was rapidly yielding a fortune to the owner. The 
Schuyler mines were for many years worked with success, the only 
interruption coming at the outbreak of the war for independence, in the 
fight for which the Hornblowers and Schuylers were ardent Patriots. 
Work was resumed in 1792, but early in the nineteenth century either 

34 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




SCHUYLER MANSION, BELLEVILLE 
The home of Arent Schuyler 



a derangement in the machinery or fault in the cyhnder through which 
the water was taken from the mine put an end to operations. 

Josiah Hornblower, who came over with the engine and expected 
to return to England as soon as it was in running order, determined 
to remain in this country, the reason being his marriage to a Miss 
Kingsland, whose father's plantation adjoined that of the Schuylers. 
As he was but twenty-five years of age and very handsome, as the 
record runs, it may be concluded that the arrangement was a satis- 
factory one. 

The Schuyler family was among the earliest settlers of Bergen 
County, and the neighbors long pointed with pride to the mansion 
on the gentle slopes of the Passaic as the most palatial in America. 
Wide lawns and dense, well-cared-for shrubbery surrounded the house, 
while along the driveways the mighty elms, which had been brought 
as young trees from England, towered over the plantation. Although 
opinions vary, the date when the Schuyler mansion was erected is 
generally accepted as 1735, though one authority declares it was in 
18 10, and that the bricks were brought from Holland. In the back- 
ground of the estate were the out-buildings, including a boat-house, 
greenhouse, and stables. Still farther back were to be found the house 
of the overseer and quarters for the slaves. The extensive park was 
stocked with deer and game. The hospitality of the Schuylers was well 
known throughout the country-side. Their mansion, much changed, 
still stands on the banks of the Passaic in what was once Newark, 
but is now Arlington. The commercial possibilities of the old mine 
were exhausted years ago; and many a resident of Newark, now a 
middle-aged man, remembers his "daring" exploring trips, when a 
youth, to the levels of the abandoned mine. 

35 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




JOSEPH HAYES HOMESTEAD ON LAND GRANTED BY QUEEN ANNE 
On the corner of Avon Avenue and Somerset Street. From a photograph taken about 1900 

THE HAYES HOMESTEAD 

Joseph Hayes and his sons built the old Hayes homestead in 1768, 
leaving as an adornment to their front yard the old well that good 
Queen Anne a century before had specified should be built when she 
made the grant of one hundred and sixty-two acres that originally 
comprised the Hayes estate. The Hayes boys went to the war. The 
Hayes girls worked the farm and took care of their mother. Hessians 
devastated portions of the town, entered houses and destroyed the 
furniture, appropriated provisions, and looted family valuables. 
Warning came to the Hayes place one day that the redcoats were 
coming. With singular coolness and forethought the girls concealed 
the family treasures, locked up the provisions, and then gathered 
their cattle from the pasture and drove them over the mountains. 
Awhile later, on returning to their home, which they expected to 
find in ruins, they found broken furniture and the disorder of the 
rooms the only evidences of the soldiers' invasion. 

Three members of the Hayes family are particularly mentioned in 
the old histories, the first being Thomas Hayes, who came to Newark 
in 1692, There is also a Thomas Hayes, said to be a namesake of 
his forefather, who is recorded as one of a "committee of seven for 
preserving of the 'neck' and cattle pound." He was one of a com- 
mittee of four to consider the advisability of allowing Azariah Crane 
to have land for a tan-yard at the front of John Plum's "home Lott 
out on the Common." Of the men who served their country. Major 
Samuel Hayes is a worthy representative, being described as "a whig, 
vigilant and active in the time that tried men's souls." He was an 
officer in the Second Regiment of the Continental Army. 

36 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




THE FIRST MILL ERECTED IN 1671 
Stood about at the corner of Broad Street and Belleville Avenue. It was where Newark's first 

industry began 

The Hayes homestead that sheltered the famous family for so 
many generations was destroyed about fifteen years ago. In the old 
days it was situated near Clinton Avenue. The opening of a new 
street, however, placed it at the corner of Somerset Street and Avon 
Avenue. The site on which it stood is now occupied by an automo- 
bile store and a moving-picture house. 

NEWARK'S FIRST INDUSTRY, WHERE A BUSTLING, 
CHEERFUL MILLER GROUND THE CORN OF THE FIRST 
SETTLERS 

Below Broad Street and Belleville Avenue was once "the Little 
Brook Called Mill Brook." It came down from the western hills of 
Newark, turned the wheels of the first mill, and ran into the Passaic 
River. When the early settlers came to Newark, they first built their 
homes, then tilled the soil. With the harvesting of their crops there 
naturally arose the need of a mill, and the records of the fifth town- 
meeting, held March 9, 1668/69, contain an item to this efltect: — • 

"The Town saw Cause for the incouragement of any amongst them 
that would Build and Ivlaintain a Good Mill, for the supply of the 
Town with Good Grinding, To offer and Tender freely the Timber 
Prepared for that use. Twenty Pounds Current Pay, and the Accom- 
modations Formerly Granted Belonging to the mill, viz.; 18 acres of 
upland and 6 of meadow, with the only Liberty and privilege of Build- 
ing a Mill on ye Brook; which motion was left to the Consideration 
of the Town Betwixt this and the 12th of this Mo. Current at Even, 
and the Meeting is adjourned to that Time: And in case any desire 

37 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



sooner, or in the mean Time to have any further Treaty or Discourse 
about his or their Undertaking of the Mill, they may repair to Mr. 
Treat, Deacon Ward and Lieutenant Swain, to prepare any Agreement 
between the Town and them." 

There was much discussion concerning the proposed mill, but no one 
seems to have visited Robert Treat at his home on the " Four Corners" 
and volunteered to undertake the task of putting the proposal of the 
town into execution. The records of the town-meeting of March 12, 
1668/69, show that, as no one accepted the town's encouragement to 
build and maintain a mill, it was determined to hire Lieutenant 
Swaine for twenty shillings a week, "and three pounds over for his 
skill," to run the mill. Another harvest, however, passed, and there 
was still no mill to grind the corn. Finally, the town engaged Robert 
Treat to direct the building of "a sufficient corn mill ... set upon the 
little brook called Mill Brook." 

It was agreed that the second day of the week and the sixth day of 
the same week be the grinding days, upon which days the miller would 
attend to the grinding, and the town was to bring its grain to be 
ground. Thus Mill Brook and the old mill began their work, and 
the first industry was established in Newark. For many years the 
ponderous water-wheel was turned by the little stream called Mill 
Brook. Modern homes now stand on the waterway which fed the 
mill. When the old mill was torn down some years ago. Dr. William 
S. Disbrow secured one of the millstones, which he had conveyed to 
the New Jersey Historical Society on West Park Street, the grounds 
of which it still adorns. 

WHEN THE BRITISH RAIDED NEWARK 

News spread like wildfire through Newark in November, 1776, 
that the British were coming to attack the town, and something like 
a proclamation was added, to the effect that all good Tories who 
remained quietly in their homes would not be molested. A notorious 
Tory, one Captain Nutman, was so enthusiastic over the anticipated 
attack of the British that he jubilantly met them in the street. He 
was robbed of the very shoes he stood in, his house plundered, and 
violent threats of hanging him were made by the party with which he 
had sympathized. On the day that Captain Nutman greeted the enemy 
with such an ovation, houses far and near were plundered and lives 
threatened. More than one citizen of Newark received ill-treatment, 
among them aged Benjamin Coe and his wife. 

Benjamin Coe was both a farmer and a tailor, a highly respected 
citizen of Newark, and an ardent Patriot. When the Revolutionary 
War broke out, he was too old to join the ranks in the field, but, wish- 
ing to be represented there, he sent as a substitute his negro slave, 
Cudjo. The negro returned at the close of the war, was rewarded by 
Mr. Coe with freedom, and given for life the use of an acre of land. 

The same day that Captain Nutman fared ill at the hands of the 
British, Benjamin Coe and his wife, sitting quietly at home, were 
surprised by the enemy, were compelled to witness the destruction of 

38 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




THE OLD COE HOMESTEAD 
Built in 1782 at the corner of Court and Washington Streets 

their household furniture, and were so brutally treated that they fled 
for their lives. Mr. Coe, as he hastened away, concealed a bag of 
gold in a patch of weeds at the back of his house. The British set 
fire to his house and burned it to the ground. Mr. Coe's loss was 
estimated at £337 14J". 4^. After this raid he went to Hanover in 
New Jersey, but returned to Newark at the close of the war. His son, 
Benjamin Coe, Jr., a thrifty farmer, in the year 1782 or 1786 built 
the Coe house at the corner of Washington and Court Streets. It 
occupied the lot where formerly was the house which the British 
burned. As business swept toward the corner, the Coe place was 
torn down, and on the land now stand buildings devoted to commer- 
cial interests. Benjamin Coe, Jr., gave one hundred pounds toward 
building the First Presbyterian Church. 

ANTHONY WAYNE'S CAMP-GROUND 

Anthony Wayne, with a detachment of the American army con- 
sisting of about two thousand men, according to tradition encamped 
in the north end of Newark during the intensely cold winter of 1779. 
His camp is said to have been in the vicinity of what is now Woodside 
Avenue. The Old Powder Magazine, erected in 181 2 for the storage 
of powder of the Decatur Works, stood on the site of this Revolution- 
ary camp-ground. Thirty years ago, because no record of this en- 
campment had been made, a Newark writer went over the site, and 
personally talked with many of the old residents of the north end, 
including the grandson of the woman who owned the woods where the 
encampment is said to have been. By careful investigation he gleaned 

39 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




THE OLD POWDER MAGAZINE 

On Heller Parkway and Woodside Avenue. This stood on ground where Anthony Wayne is 
said to have encamped in 1779 



much that was interesting, and said that "traces of this encampment 
are found in the excavations which the soldiers made for their huts. 
... In one of these excavations the stones which mark the temporary 
fireplace still remain." Grape-shot and a sword were also found on 
the camp-ground. "About a mile northwest," continued the writer 
of this account, "the old barn, in which were slaughtered the cattle 
for the use of the army, still stands." 

Mr. Nathaniel Crane, whose family owned this barn, was inter- 
viewed, and declared he had heard his father talk of the encampment. 
Jasper Crane, whose father was a soldier in Wayne's army, attended 
roll-call, and he remembered seeing the soldiers remove their caps 
and stand on them to protect their bare feet from snow and ice. 
Crane also said that, when the troops started for Morristown, where 
they went because of fear of being flanked by the British who followed 
hard at their heels, a heavy snow was falling, and the bleeding feet of 
the soldiers left a red trail as they marched. 

"Their way," continued the narrator, "was along the old Bloomfield 
road. . . . From Bloomfield the march was through Caldwell, where 
the snow became so deep that the artillery was left behind, imbedded 
in drifts, on a road near where the penitentiary now stands, until 
spring. At Bloomfield a picket was posted to guard the rear. One 
of the men climbed on to the fence to see if the British were pursuing. 
In the act his gun was discharged, killing him instantly." 

Jasper Crane's story is confirmed by the fact that a snow-storm 
did begin on February 3, 1779, and lasted three days, leaving 

40 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




OLD SCHOOL-HOUSE AT LYONS FARMS 

At one time the oldest school-house in use in the United States, and standing on land purchased 

from the Indians for a quarter of a pound of powder. Built in 1784 on the site 

of the original school-house which was burned by the British 

the snow eight feet deep on the Bloomfield road. Further proof 
also is offered in the fact that, when Wayne made his attack, July, 
1779, on Stony Point, he was without artillery. 

The "Magazine House" was a stone building erected in 1812 and 
used by the Decatur Powder Works. For some years it occupied this 
ground on which, tradition claims, Wayne's Camp was located. Before 
its destruction several years ago, when modern dwellings crept up to it, 
the powder house was located at Heller Parkway and the newly opened 
Woodside Avenue, back of the Summerfield Methodist Church. 

NEWARK'S OLD SCHOOL-HOUSE 

In the southern part of the city, on the corner of Elizabeth and 
Chancellor Avenues, there is a little old building of Jersey brownstone, 
— Newark's oldest school-house, said also to be the oldest school-house 
in use in the United States. From the days when the land was pur- 
chased from the Hackensacks for a quarter of a pound of powder, it 
has been devoted to educational purposes. A wooden school-house 
was built here before the present one of stone. This first building 
was erected in 1728, and many a lad from Newark, Elizabethtown, 
and surrounding boroughs learned to read and cipher on its crude 
wooden benches. 

The old wooden school-house was on the highway, and in its yard 

41 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



and the adjoining fields thousands of Jersey soldiers were mustered to 
fight in the war of the Revolution. One day its children became 
excited as the news flew that General Washington was passing on his 
way to winter headquarters in Morristown. He rode at the head of 
his men, and the children, wide-eyed and eager, flocked out of the door 
and gathered about the teacher as the troops came up. And the 
little old school-house, indeed, may have been proud when the tall 
general reined his horse and spoke to the children. Whether he looked 
at the little old house is not recorded. Whether he spoke of it, no- 
body knows. But he passed it, and it is so recorded. It had moth- 
ered State troops — five thousand of them^ — and had seen Washington 
before the eventful day when redcoats passed it on their way to raid 
Elizabethtown, and burned it. Not an unblackened stick was left, 
but the coals were scarcely cold when the men and women of Lyons 
Farms gathered to find means of erecting another building in its place; 
and in 1784 there was completed the school-house that stands to-day. 
As the old one was far too small for the children who attended it 
from the Lyons Farms district, some years ago a new school-house was 
built; and it is probable that the newest and the oldest school buildings 
in the State stood for some time almost side by side. Trolley cars 
now pass the school-house, and the surge of modern dwellings rapidly 
is sweeping up to its doorway. 

JOHNSON'S MILL 

An interesting tradition is told concerning Newark's second mill 
and its miller at the time of the Revolution. This mill, which was 
erected about 1680 on Bound Creek near Two Mile Brook, was the 
second one in the town. The records show that, when Thomas John- 
son, one of the first settlers of Newark, was appointed constable, his 
son Joseph was made town drummer. His chief duty was to beat 
the drum on Sunday morning to summon the good folk to church. 
This first town constable's great-grandson, John, ran the old second 
mill, which at the time of the Revolutionary War and for some time 
thereafter was known as Johnson's Mill. John wanted to fight with 
the Patriot army, but there is evidence that his services were required 
nearer home; for, since flour was the staff of the community's life, 
he could better play the part of miller, and fill the sacks of the village 
folk and those of the soldiers when they passed his way. So he re- 
mained at the second mill. He was wont, when the British ravages 
were too hot, to beat a retreat to a convenient hollow tree in the 
neighborhood, where he concealed himself until the threatened danger 
had passed. 

A party of Continental soldiers filled their sacks at his mill in 
November, 1776, and left, telling him that the British were following 
close at their heels. Everything of value that Johnson, the miller, 
and his family could hastily gather together, was deposited in an 
arm-chair in the kitchen of the house. Mrs. Johnson called her 
children, seated herself at the window, — the valuables carefully placed 
under a cushion of the chair in which she sat, — and watched the 

42 



HISTORIC N E WARK 




.^«a%»^**»«'***^ 



JOHNSON'S MILL AND FARM-HOUSE 
The two stood opposite the Poorhouse, and here corn was ground for the Revolutionary Army 



approach of the British up the road. In the mean time her husband 
had loaded a wagon with grain and driven at high speed to the hollow 
tree in the woods near Irvington. Mrs. Johnson never moved an inch 
out of her chair, and the children must have discreetly held their 
tongues; for, after rummaging noisily over the house, the soldiers 
returned to Mrs. Johnson and demanded whatever valuables she 
might possess. The good woman was such a born diplomat, and her 
children so unusually demure and wide-eyed, that no valuables were 
disclosed. A British officer finally offered somewhat abruptly to 
place a guard over the house if Mrs. Johnson would give his men bread 
and cheese, — evidently, a more mundane substitute for the much- 
desired valuables. Having obtained from the miller's wife the "open 
sesame" to the pantry, and having found there evidently sufficient 
food, the soldiers took themselves off. 

John Johnson afterward converted his mill into a place for the 
manufacture of wool, and he was one of the earliest to pursue 
this work in Newark. By way of proving this point, an item appears 
in the New Jersey Jourfial of 1790, as follows: — 

"The Subscriber informs the public, and his friends in particular, 
that his Fulling Mill is in complete order, and that he has supplied 
himself with the best of workmen from Europe, so that they may 
depend upon having their work done with care and expedition. He 
intends dressing all kinds of cloth and will dye them any color they 
may choose, except scarlet, after the first of October next." 

43 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




THE BALDWIN HOUSE 

At the comer of Mulberry and Lafayette Streets until about 1902. It stood on the home lot 
of "John Bauldwin, Jr.," one of Newark's first settlers 

THE BALDWIN HOMESTEAD 

The old Baldwin house stood on the corner of Mulberry and La- 
fayette Streets. On the spot where the house stood was the "home- 
lott" of one of the first Newark settlers, "John Bauldwin, Jr." An 
early map shows his place on Mulberry Street. Next to it was the 
lot of Micah Tompkins. Both places were near what was then 
Camp's Lane in the southern part of the town. 

For generations the estate remained in the family, and a path, well 
trodden by the Baldwin cows, extended over what is now Lafayette 
Street. The pasture where the herd was driven has been located, 
extending down to the salt meadows, and the farm buildings were at 
a distance from the house itself. There is a story, frequently recalled, 
of the apprehension that the Baldwins felt during the War of 1812, 
when they heard there was danger of the British coming across to 
Newark from Long Island. Mr. Ezra Baldwin, fearing lest his two 
hundred head of excellent cattle might be appropriated by the enemy, 
gathered them together and drove them across the Orange Mountains. 
The tradition does not include information as to whether the appre- 
hensions of this expected raid were ever realized, or how soon afterward 
Mr. Baldwin drove his herd back to his farm. 

There were formerly many acres in the Baldwin estate. At the 
back of the house was a great well, and some distance from this was 
a large stone basin where the slaves which the Baldwin family kept 
were accustomed to wash. A story is told of Uncle Cuff, whom 

44 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




THE PARK HOUSE, OXCE THE HOME OF GEN. FREDERICK IRELLNGHUYSEN 

It stood near the corner of Canal Street and Park Place until about 1898. Now 
the site of a theatre 

everybody in Newark seemed to know and like. The close of the Civil 
War left him homeless; and, to add to this, he was fast losing his 
sight. It is said that his former master saw to it that he was made 
in every way comfortable, and that all his life he was well cared for. 
He lived at the farm-house, and the young folk of the neighborhood 
used to gather to hear him whistle, and the little folk went to him 
often to be measured. Uncle Cuff's cane was full of notches where 
he had measured the children. A story is also told of Mr. Baldwin's 
great flock of carrier-pigeons, and how one of them — "Always Ready" 
— was taken west, beyond Indianapolis, and came straight home again. 
The Baldwins were among the founders of the First Presbyterian 
Church, and one of the family planted the elm-trees standing in front 
of the present edifice. 

THE FRELINGHUYSEN HOUSE 

When Theodore Frelinghuysen was a youth just out of college, 
he wooed and won beautiful Charlotte Mercer, whose father gave 
her as a marriage dowry the Park House, where the young couple 
made their home until they moved to a larger home at 33 Washington 
Park. Here Charlotte Frelinghuysen watched over her extensive 
garden, entertained friends of the family, and served tea bounteously. 
The young couple were happy, and the husband was rapidly advanc- 
ing in affairs of state. His father before him had been a public- 
spirited citizen. He was General Frederick Frelinghuysen, and at 
the time he joined the Continental forces he was only a lad, but brave 



45 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



as any man; and they say he fired the bullet that disabled the com- 
mander at Trenton, Colonel Rahl, when General Washington came 
upon them unexpectedly at Christmas time. General Frelinghuysen 
fought in both the battle of Monmouth and the battle of Springfield. 
He represented New Jersey at the Continental Congress in 1778, and 
after the war he was a senator. 

Theodore Frelinghuysen, the son, is spoken of as follows: "His 
unostentatious piety, his powers as an orator, his excellent judgment, 
had made him a conspicuous figure in State life. Serving as an 
attorney-general of New Jersey and as United States senator, he 
had later become chancellor of the University of New York, and had 
been relied upon to sustain the Whig cause in the East, particularly 
as the Democratic administration had become unpopular." An- 
other historian says that he was "one of the best and the purest of 
American statesmen." 

Park House, facing Military Park, where the Frelinghuysens spent 
the early part of their married life, was torn down some time ago, and 
on its site is Proctor's Theatre. About 1820 the Frelinghuysens 
moved away from Park House, which was converted into a hotel a 
dozen years later. An advertisement in a local paper gives some 
information concerning the house: — 

Park House — B. Day, formerly keeper of the Mansion House, informs 
the public that he has taken the former residence of the Honourable T. Fre- 
linghuysen on Broad Street — Park Place^directly east of the flagstaff, at the 
foot of the Common, and adjoining the Morris Canal. The house has just 
undergone extensive repairs, and is now ready for travellers and for those 
desiring permanent board. 

When Henry Clay visited Newark in 1833, he was a guest at the 
Park House, where he was greeted by the citizens of the town. "Well, 
gentlemen," said Mr. Clay when they pressed him for a speech, "I 
did not come to make a speech. I came to shake hands with you 
and become better acquainted with you, and, if you please, to take a 
chew of tobacco with you." 

OLD NEWARK ACADEMY 

In Newark two well-known academies have been built, and, though 
authorities claim that they were distinct organizations, nevertheless 
the first was, at least, the inspiration which led to the building of 
the second. The first academy was built in 1774 on an acre and a 
half of land, granted by the town, in what is now the southern part 
of Washington Park. The grant was "to a body of citizens as trus- 
tees for an academy to be carried on for the English and Classical 
education," and the building which they erected was "a sightly and 
commodious stone edifice." There were living-rooms for the boarders 
as well as for the teachers. 

The school work was summarily arrested by the Revolution, and 
the building turned into a barracks and hospital for the American 
troops, finally being burned to the ground the night of January 25, 
1780, by a party of British troops, who crossed from New York on 

46 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




NEWARK ACADEMY, WHICH WAS ON THE SITE OF THE POST-OFFICE 

It stood at the northeast corner of Broad and Academy Streets from 1792 to 1857. From a 
painting by John B. Lee, 1857. Picture owned by the New Jersey Historical Society 

the ice and raided New Jersey. No steps were taken to replace the 
old academy until the year 1789, when the efforts of the Rev. Alexander 
Macwhorter, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, also a trustee 
of the first academy, and a number of other trustees, bore fruit. 
They formed an association to found a new academy, of which 
association Isaac Gouverneur was chosen president. 

Many expedients were employed to raise money to build. Judge 
Elisha Boudinot and Abram Ogden were appointed a committee to 
petition for a lottery to obtain funds to build, and the request was 
granted with the stipulation that the amount to be raised in this way 
should not exceed eight hundred pounds. There is no record of just 
how much money was realized by the lottery, but there is a note that 
the Rev. Uzal Ogden sold for forty pounds a slave named James, that 
had been given him for the fund by a man named Watts. The min- 
ister was something of a farmer, for there was a saying that "the 
negroes raised the corn, hogs ate the corn, and the negroes ate the 
hogs," leaving it incumbent upon the Rev. Uzal Ogden to raise 
money to support the negroes. 

The funds for building the academy would probably have been short, 
had not St. John's Lodge of Free Masons agreed to pay one-third 
of the expense, provided the lodge could have the third story set 
aside for its use. The energy of the Rev. Mr. Macwhorter had much 
to do with the successful starting of the academy, for even before the 

47 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



close of the Revolution, in 1782, he had announced he would set up 
in Newark "a philosophical academy," provided he was able to 
obtain a sufficient number of students. He was chosen president of 
the first board of trustees, and the corner-stone of the new academy 
was laid June 22, 1792, at the corner of Broad and Academy Streets, 
where the post-office now stands, "amid the acclaim of a large num- 
ber of the inhabitants of the town and neighborhood." The building 
was of brick, sixty-six by thirty-four feet, and three stories high, with 
a seven-foot stone basement. It was divided into a number of apart- 
ments, finished in plain style, and for the use of young gentlemen 
only. The ordinary English branches were taught, as well as Latin 
and Greek and some of the modern languages. A female department 
was added in 1802, and the Rev. William Woodbridge was placed in 
charge of the institution. A commodious brick house for the accom- 
modation of the young ladies with the principal's family was soon 
afterward erected on the lot adjoining the academy. In 1809, as 
Mr. Woodbridge had determined to give up, the school trustees 
separated the male and female departments, and placed each under 
a different corps of teachers. 

The academy building on the site of the post-office was sold in 
1855 to the United States Government for $50,000, and in 1857 the 
trustees purchased the building known as the Wesleyan Institute 
on the premises bounded by High, William, and Shipman Streets. 
The Rev. F. A. Adams was first principal, and held office until 
1859, when he was succeeded by Dr. Samuel A. Farrand. Since 
Mr. Farrand's death in 1908 the academy has been in charge of his 
son, Wilson Farrand, who was long associated with his father as 
head-master. A new site has been purchased in the Roseville section, 
overlooking the Park, and, as soon as sufficient money has been 
obtained, a new building will be erected there. 

MINE HOST, ARCHER GIFFORD, HIS TAVERN AT THE 
"FOUR CORNERS," AND WHALING DAYS IN NEWARK 

"Newark — noted for its fine breed of fat mosquitoes — sting through the 
thickest boots — story about galleynippers — Archy Gifford and his inan 
Caliban — jolly fat fellows — A knowing traveller always judges of everything 
by the inn-keepers and waiters — set down Newark people all fat as butter — 
learned dissertation on Archy Gifford's green coat, with philosophical reasons 
why the Newarkites wear red worsted nightcaps, and turn their noses to the 
South, when the wind blows. Newark Academy full of windows — sunshine 
excellent to make little boys grow — Elizabethtown — fine girls — vile mosqui- 
toes." — Memorandum of a Tour to be entitled " The Stranger in New Jersey" 
in "Salmagundi,'" Washington Irving. 

Archer Gifford, jolly "Archie" Gifford, tavern-keeper at the "Four 
Corners" in the days of the stage-coaches and fox-hunts, has been 
called the finest man in Jersey. His tavern, bearing the sign of the 
Hunter and Hounds, was known throughout the length and breadth 
of the States, and twice a day, with merry din, stage-coaches, as 
regular as clock-work, drove up to the door of the inn. Those days 
in the early thirties were some of the most picturesque the "Four 



48 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



iff 













"7 






•'•w. 



^E^^UiU^ 



AN OLD WHALING CERTIFICATE ISSUED BY THE NEWARK WHALING, 
SEALING, & MANUFACTURING CO. 

In July, 1837, the whaling schooners ]ohn Wells and Columbus left the Centre Street Wharf, 
Newark, commanded respectively by Capt. John Russell and Capt. Ephraim Black. They 
sailed together down the coast, leaving much of this paper money behind them on the way. 
The Columbus was wrecked, but the John Wells returned to Newark with 3,000 barrels of oil 
and a great quantity of whalebone. This three shilling note was the property of John Neefus of 
Nursery Street, Newark, who found sticking to it a little one-cent bill of Davis & Son, of 
Providence, R.I. The whaling script is as big as a $10,000 United States note. 

Corners" have ever known. To-day past that very northeast end 
of Broad and Market Streets surge the thousands of a great city, but 
the breadth and sweep of the place — as free as the crack of a whip 
in Gifford's day — have passed and given place to towering business 
structures. 

Southern folk were often guests at Gifford's Tavern. Did not the 
tavern-keeper himself extol to Colonel John Rutherford the particular 
excellences of the products of Mr. Combs's shoe-shop on the south 
side of Market Street? Colonel Rutherford was interested. He vis- 
ited the local manufacturer of footwear, and left a munificent order 
for no less than two hundred pairs of sealskin shoes to be sent to him 
in the South. In this way did Archer Gifford start the export trade 
of Newark's shoes. 

In 1834, shortly after President Jackson made Newark a port of 
entry, Archer Gifford was appointed collector of the port. There 
was considerable whaling trade, as well as coastwise trade, carried 
on with Philadelphia, New York, and many Southern ports. Im- 
ports in 1835 amounted to nearly $2,500,000, and the exports were 
approximately $8,000,000. Two whaling schooners, John Wells and 
Columbus, first-rate whalers, having a crew of thirty men and boys, 
sailed out of Newark. On their way to Cape Horn they stopped at 
various ports, and went thence north to the Behring Sea. The 
Columbus was wrecked on an ice floe. The Wells took aboard oil 
and crew. The log stated that the Wells returned to Newark with 
three thousand barrels of whale oil and a quantity of whalebone. 

The following statement was made by Archer Gifi'ord after his 
second term as collector of the port: "There are eighty-two vessels 
of all classes, and 245 marines, cleared from the port of Newark during 
the past year, six brigs and three ships for foreign countries, with 
foreign and domestic goods amounting to $36,988.20." The good 



49 



HISTORIC NEWARK 




THE OLD MORTON BREWERY 

On High Street near Orange, where one of Newark's greatest industries began. 
1899 to make room for manufacturing buildings 



Removed in 



tavern-keeper and port collector's name appears on the committee 
that furthered the plan of incorporating Newark into a city in 1836. 

When the hills about Newark resounded with the bay of fox-hounds 
and the reverberating horn, it was to mine host at Gifford's Tavern that 
the followers of the chase returned for refreshment. A tradition exists 
that in the house of John Decatur, facing Military Park, hung the brushes 
of two hundred foxes. Though no similar tradition clusters around 
Gifford's Tavern, there may have been as many there, brought by gra- 
cious guests as a tribute to their merry host. " I fell in with a fox-chase," 
says Duke de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt in his Travels, "in my short 
journey on this road. It is a common diversion with the gentlemen of 
Jersey, at least in these parts, and here, as in England, every one joins in 
the chase, who either has a horse of his own or can borrow one." 



OLD MORTON BREWERY 

Prior to the early thirties several short-lived attempts had been 
made to start a definite brewing business in Newark. Ever since 
Caleb Johnson in 1795 advertised that he was brewing "ale, porter 
and table beer," for a number of decades the business of being a brewer 
was a somewhat popular, but not an altogether successful one, until 
Thomas Morton came to Belleville from New York, and thence to 
Newark in 183 1, and definitely established, in the big stone building 
on High Street near Orange, the Morton Brewery. To Thomas 
Morton, therefore, is due the credit of starting this great business in 
the town that not long afterward became a city. 

SO 



HISTORIC NEWARK 







THE CEDARS, HOME OF FRANK FORESTER 

It stood on the banks of the Passaic on ground that is now a part of Mount Pleasant Cemetery 
From the " Life and Writings of Frank Forester" by David W. Judd 

The building on High Street was for years used by the Morton 
family for brewing purposes. After the suspension of brewing in the 
eighties the old place was rented for a pickle factory, and was from that 
time on used for various industries. Gradually it fell into decay, and 
more than a dozen years ago was torn down to make room for factories 
that were built on its site. 

FRANK FORESTER'S SOMBRE LIFE AT "THE CEDARS" 

"I have a home where the soft shadows fall 
From the dim pine-tree, and the river's sigh 
Like voices of the dead wails ever nigh." 

Henry William Herbert. 

Henry William Herbert, one of the greatest sporting authorities 
America has produced, whose books are now eagerly sought by collect- 
ors, was known to the literary world as "Frank Forester." He shook 
off the dust of New York City the middle of the last century, and came 
to Newark, where in the north end at a bend in the Passaic River, 
near Cockloft Hall, he purchased three-quarters of an acre of land 
and built "The Cedars." His father, William Herbert, dean of 
Manchester, and son of the Earl of Carnarvon, paid two hundred and 
fifty pounds for the house and the land. 

New York and the brilliant coterie of huntsmen and men of letters, 
in which Herbert was an equally brilliant figure, lost their charm after 
the death of his wife, beautiful Susan Barker Herbert. He hid him- 
self in the desolations of the forest near the Passaic. At first he spent 
his time planting myriads of cedars about the place. Then he built 
a simple, rustic cottage of sweet-smelling cedars, and, though within 

SI 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



and without it was crude, it met the author's simple needs. Vines 
and creeping plants were trained across the piazza. Sailor, a mas- 
sive Newfoundland dog, mounted guard in the doorway, the sole 
ornament of which was a deer's head with spreading antlers. On 
each side of the winding path that led to the house, dog-kennels 
were placed; and a merry din they made when any one ventured 
toward the place. Few interrupted the life of the solitary man, who 
shut himself off from the world to write his books. In the study of 
"The Cedars" were completed twenty-three of the one hundred vol- 
umes that came from Frank Forester's pen. 

On stormy nights when the cedars without were wind-tossed, and 
the lonely occupant of the cottage that bore their name was within, 
fighting his gloomy thoughts and fancies, he would bring out a small 
mahogany basket, containing fragments of things belonging to his 
wedding day, — a shred of her bridal veil, her satin slipper, bits of 
white ribbon, and a wreath of yellowed and dusty orange blossoms, — • 
and, holding these relics, fraught with memories of his wife, against 
his cheek, wash away their dust with his tears. 

Stories were whispered among the neighbors of all-night carousals 
at "The Cedars." On one of these occasions Herbert suddenly 
stopped drinking, went to a closet, and brought forth swords. Throw- 
ing one of them on the table, he ordered a member of the company 
to defend himself. Some one had the presence of mind to overturn 
the table, thus upsetting the lamp and leaving the room in darkness. 
The company broke up, and groped their way out of doors. After 
their escape they were madly pursued by Herbert, who went after 
them down the Gully Road, and he is said to have kept up the chase 
until he was obliged, by losing sight and sound of his prey, to give 
up pursuit. 

But a short distance from "The Cedars" was a hill at the head of 
a cross-lane. Here Herbert and Valentine, the mad lawyer, fought 
a duel, in which Herbert escaped with a bruised foot from Valen- 
tine's pistol-ball. 

One day during the winter of 1858, when there were labor troubles in 
New York, a mob of agitators assaulted a young lady in the streets, 
and Herbert came to her rescue. A short time afterward she married 
him, and came to "The Cedars," where she remained three months, 
and then departed, apparently to visit her mother; but she really left 
him to sue for divorce on the ground of cruelty. Herbert invited a 
group of old friends to dine with him. Details concerning this feast 
of May 16, 1858, which was to have been his wedding feast, delayed 
because of lack of money, are not known. Toward two o'clock in 
the morning Herbert arose from the table and went to another room, 
where he placed himself in front of a full-length mirror, and, taking 
aim from his reflection, shot himself through the heart. "I told you 
I'd do it," he said, as he staggered into the room where his guests were 
gathered about the table. "I loved her unutterably. I was immeas- 
urably happy. All is lost, — home, hope, sunshine: she — let life go like- 
wise," Herbert wrote before his death. "The Cedars" was sold and 
renovated, but before entirely completed was burned. 

52 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



FISHERMEN, FISHING, AND FISH-POLES ON THE PASSAIC 
AND GAME ABOUT NEWARK 

Up and down the Passaic, more than half a century ago, fishing- 
boats passed, gathering shad and smelts, for which the river was 
famous. Closely connected with the record of these days is the Old 
Point House, which stood on the western bank of the river near 
"Green Island," long vanished, which lay off the northern end of 
Alount Pleasant Cemetery. The old house passed from one owner 
to another, and was the scene of many interesting incidents. Though 
it is not exactly known when the Point House was erected, it was 
old in the middle twenties, and had lost none of its prestige in Frank 
Forester's time, — thirty years later. Forester knew the river well, 
and he frequented the Point House. In an article written by him, 
called "Memoir of the Smelt of the Passaic River," published in 
Grahanis American Monthly Magazine, 1854, he speaks of the Ameri- 
can smelt and the superior qualities of fish of the Passaic. 




OLD POINT HOUSE 
From "Woodside," by C. G. Hine 

The Old Point House, the history of which is so closely woven 
with the fishing industry on the Passaic, after changing hands many 
times, became the resort of fishermen, who, though pursuing their 
vocation within sight of their own kitchen windows, nevertheless 
cooked chowders and spun yarns at the old house. Later, when 
there were many rowing matches on the river, the Point House was 
converted into a sort of half-way place for refreshments, and parties 
loitered in picturesque groups beneath the willows. Drivers who 
travelled over the river road between Belleville and Newark spoke 
of the landmark as the "half-way house," while oarsmen counted it 
the half-way point over the mile and a half rowing course. 

S3 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



Charles F. Murphy, a veteran angler and hunter of Newark, who 
made in 1865 the first split bamboo fishing-rod, gave the New York 
Times, December 11, 1881, an interview in which he describes the 
hunting and fishing about Newark from 1830 to 1850. "Snipe, wood- 
cock, and rabbits were as thick as hops right here in Newark," said 
he, "and I've seen flocks of wild ducks and geese cover the ground 
back of the City Hall." The City Hall then stood at the corner of 
William and Broad Streets, and back of it were a pond and marsh 
made by a small brook. "I've caught trout and perch and shot game 
where St. Patrick's Cathedral and the finest residences now stand. 
School-boys used to scoop up hatfuls of fish during dinner hour, and 
the sky was darkened every day by the flocks of wild pigeons that 
flew to the trees on the Commons, now Military Park." 

He said further that he had seen in the Passaic River sturgeon 
four feet long spring out of the water and fall back again with a 
splash, like a man diving. Smelts were then so thick that people 
wouldn't take them home, and shad could be had for a song. He 
described the river as so clear that one could see "thousands of bass, 
perch, pickerel, sunfish, catfish, suckers, salmon, and smelts on the 
bottom." 

Where the Market Street Station of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
and the surrounding factories now stand was, about 1830, according to 
Mr. Murphy, a swamp known as Burt's Pond, where game gathered in 
large quantities. An old hunter named Seal Harris, while snipe-shoot- 
ing among the alder and high grass on the pond, "disappeared one 
day, and was later found buried ten feet deep in the quagmire." There 
are no traces of the swamp now, and hundreds of railroad trains run 
over it every day. 

THE DAY WOMEN VOTED AT THE OLD COURT-HOUSE 

Elizabethtown and the town of Newark had a bitter argument 
at the beginning of the nineteenth century as to which one of them 
should possess the Essex County Court-house. Elizabethtown was 
then in Essex County, and she wanted the new court-house for which 
Newark, the county seat at that time, had petitioned the Board of 
Freeholders. Since the First Church moved to its present quarters 
in 1791, the court-house had been located in the old meeting-house 
in what is now Branford Place. Both it and the jail which adjoined 
it were inadequate in every way. The building was not only too small, 
but it rapidly became dilapidated and unsuited to the growing needs 
of the county seat. When application was made to the Board of 
Freeholders of the county either to repair the buildings or build new 
ones, seven towns in the State — among them Elizabethtown and New- 
ark — asked that they might be the seat of county government. The 
contest gradually simmered down to Newark and Elizabethtown, the 
former fighting to retain what she had and the latter eagerly aggressive 
to snatch away the prized possession. As the eventful day ap- 
proached, when the citizens were to vote for the town of their choice, 
their demonstrations became more and more violent, until it was finally 

55 



HISTORIC NEWARK 



taken for granted by the men of each village that the best way to 
keep bones whole was to stay at home and declare, by casting their 
ballot, just where they did want the court-house. Seth Woodruff 
and William Halsey did not stay at home, however, but harnessed up 
a mare in an attractive gig, and jauntily trotted over to Elizabethtown, 
where an irate citizen treated them to a shower from a bucket of tar, 
specially reserved for Newarkers, whose business he thought it was 
to stay at home until the court-house question was settled. 

It was asserted that the voting in Elizabethtown was dishonest. 
If that is true, it is fair to say that Newark surpassed her rival, for 
when election day, February lo, 1807, arrived, there was a rush 
for the polls. Women then voted in Jersey. On this particular 
day they availed themselves many times of the privilege, concealing 
their identity on each trip to the polls by appearing in various cos- 
tumes. "Every person," wrote an old Newark author who personally 
remembered the day, "voted at every poll, married women voted as 
well as single women. Three sisters, the youngest fifteen years, 
changed their dresses and their names and voted six times each. 
Men and boys changed clothes in order to duplicate their votes, and 
married and single women did the same. Never was there a more 
reckless election. Newark won the court-house, and in the evening 
illuminated herself even to the tops of her steeples. Cannon thundered 
and bellowed, and all the tar and apple barrels which could be gathered 
in from miles around were consumed by fire." 

Newark got the court-house, but of course there was scandal. 
Ground was broken for the new building in 1 8 10 on a lot at the north- 
ern corner of Broad and Walnut Streets where Grace Church now 
stands. This land was given by Governor William S. Pennington. 
Much of the stone of the old meeting-house and jail in Branford Place 
was used in the new building of three stories. Cells were located in 
the cellar, and there was a debtors' prison on the top floor. This 
court-house was burned, August 15, 1835. A new one, after the 
style of Egyptian architecture, was built in 1837 on the site of the 
present court-house at Market Street and Springfield Avenue. This 
eventually gave way to the present court-house, erected in 1907. 




